Thursday's Stock Market Close: US Equities Finish Flat, Up From Mid-Day Lows, As Cisco Disappoints

The Dow Jones Industrial Average pared back from all-time highs but recovered in late-day trading Thursday as a trade deal between the U.S. and China stalled, and Cisco Systems (CSCO) issued a tepid earnings-revenue forecast the second quarter

The Dow finished 1.63 points lower to close at a 27,781.96. The S&P 500 added 2.59 points to close at 3,096.63 while the Nasdaq Composite gave up nearly 3.08 points to finish at 8,479.02.

Volume on the New York Stock Exchange totaled 2.6 billion shares with 1,620 issues advancing, 94 setting new highs, and 1,274 declining, with 74 setting new lows.

Cisco Systems (CSCO), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Callon Petroleum (CPE), Nokia (NOK) and Bank of America (BAC) led the most actively traded shares.

In explaining Cisco’s weak second quarter forecast, CEO Chuck Robbins said during an earnings call that weakness in its service-provider business and in the emerging markets had seeped into the network giant’s more dominant businesses, including enterprise and commercial.

As a result, some analysts downgraded the stock, with Tim Long of Barclay’s cutting his price target to $47 from $51. Cisco shares lost 7% in Thursday trading.

The Chinese government warned that the U.S. must eliminate tariffs on Chinese goods as a precondition for a new trade agreement. Beijing's Ministry of Commerce said since the trade war began "with adding tariffs, [it] should be ended by canceling these additional tariffs." New tariffs are scheduled to be levied by the U.S. in mid-December. US president Donald Trump said on Tuesday that in the absence of a trade agreement, he will authorize further tariff increases.

Global markets were mixed

In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed 0.92% lower while Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.76% and China’s Shanghai Composite edged up 0.16%. Australia’s S&P/ASX moved up 0.55%.

In Europe, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.8% while the German DAX lost 0.38% and the French CAC 40 shaved 0.1%.

On currency markets, the British pound was up 0.22% to $1.288 while the yen dipped 0.34% to 108.44 yen to the dollar.

Oil futures were mixed. Crude oil fell 0.44% to $56.87 a barrel while Brent crude gained 0.1% to $62.34 a barrel. Gold futures gained 0.55% to $1,471.30 an ounce.

Yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell to 1.826% while yield on the 30-year note fell to 2.307%.