New York---Wall Street stocks finished mixed Tuesday in a choppy session following disappointing Walmart earnings and a pullback in many petroleum stocks.
At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 18,312.93, up 14.05 points (0.08 percent), finishing at an all-time high for the second day in a row.
But the broad-based S&P 500 fell 1.31 (0.06 percent) to 2,127.89, ending a three-day streak of new record peaks, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 9.23 (0.20 percent) to 4,503.72.
US housing starts leaped 20.2 percent in April from March to an annual rate of 1,135,000 units, the best level of new home construction since November 2007.
Dow member Wal-Mart Stores fell 4.4 percent after reporting a seven percent decline to $3.3 billion in earnings for its fiscal first quarter ending April 30. The results translated into $1.03 per share, a penny shy of analyst expectations.
Many petroleum-linked stocks tumbled following a big retreat in oil prices, including Anadarko Petroleum (-1.7 percent), Halliburton (-3.5 percent) and Transocean (-5.9 percent).
AFP
