Monday's Stock Market Noon: US Equities Remain Mixed As Trump Meets With Fed Chief Powell

U.S. stocks indexes were trading narrowly mixed on noon Monday, after last week’s surge to record highs as traders still hope for quick resolution to U.S.-China trade negotiations.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 6.13 points, to 28,011.02 while S&P 500 was up 0.24 points, to 3,120.70 and Nasdaq was down 2.57 points to 8,538.26.

The National Association of Home Builders said on Monday that the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index edged down to 70 in November after climbing to 71 in the prior month. Economists had expected no change in the index

Goldman Sachs said in a research note that it forecasts real GDP in the U.S. growing at 2.3% in early 2020 and 2.1% for the full year.

The Federal Reserve said Chairman Jerome Powell, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and President Donald Trump met today to discuss the economy, the dollar, China, growth, employment and inflation. Trump tweeted the meeting was productive and “cordial.” Trump has previously criticized Powell.

Over the weekend, China’s Vice Premier Liu He spoke via telephone with Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. trade representative and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, characterizing the talks as “constructive.”

On Monday, for the first time in four years, China’s central bank, The People's Bank of China, cut the interest rate on its regular reverse repurchase open market operations to 2.5% from 2.55%. The bank also injected 180 billion yuan (about $25.7 billion) of cash into its monetary system.

Saudi Arabia’s state-owned energy company, Saudi Aramco said it seeks an IPO valuation of between $1.6 trillion to $1.7 trillion – which would make it the biggest IPO in history, but well below the $2 trillion value initially envisioned by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Overnight in Asia, markets closed broadly higher with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rising 1.35%, China's Shanghai Composite climbing 0.62% and Japan's Nikkei 225 up 0.49%.

In Europe, London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.07% while the German DAX was down 0.26% and the French CAC 40 has fallen 0.16%.

Crude oil futures were down 1.6% to $56.79 per barrel and Brent crude was down 1.7% to $62.71. Gold futures were up 0.2%.

The euro was up 0.24% to $1.1079 while the pound sterling has climbed 0.5% to $1.2966.

European investors are looking forward to European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde’s first major policy speech on Friday.

In the US, traders await Wednesday’s release of minutes of the Federal Reserve's last policy meeting.