<p class="bodytext">Wall Street stocks finished mostly lower Tuesday amid worries over the economy and Covid-19 as well as lackluster consumer data and mixed earnings.</p>.<p class="bodytext">After falling hard on Monday on fears of the coronavirus and the lack of new fiscal stimulus from Congress, markets had a choppier session on Tuesday.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.8 per cent to 27,463.19.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The broad-based S&P 500 declined 0.3 percent to 3,390.68, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.6 percent to 11,431.35.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Nasdaq's rise reflects the tech sector's better positioning "if growth wavers due to Covid," said Quincy Krosby, Prudential Financial's chief market strategist.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The United States has been registering more than 60,000 new coronavirus cases a day in recent days, and cases are also on the upswing in France and throughout Europe where governments are enacting new restrictions.</p>.<p class="bodytext">President Donald Trump said Congress will approve a pandemic rescue package for the US economy after the November 3 election, seeming to concede defeat on efforts to reach a deal before voters decide whether to give him a second term.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Meanwhile, the Conference Board reported that US consumer confidence in October lagged analyst expectations.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Consumers' assessment of current conditions improved while expectations declined, driven primarily by a softening in the short-term outlook for jobs," The Conference Board's Senior Director of Economic Indicators Lynn Franco said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Among individual companies, shares of Xilinx jumped 8.6 per cent after it reached a deal to be acquired by rival chipmaker AMD for $35 billion. AMD shed 4.1 per cent.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Travel-oriented stocks dropped in a sign of renewed anxiety about Covid-19. American Airlines lost 4.8 per cent, Booking Holdings shed 3.0 per cent and Marriott International fell 2.7 per cent.</p>
<p class="bodytext">Wall Street stocks finished mostly lower Tuesday amid worries over the economy and Covid-19 as well as lackluster consumer data and mixed earnings.</p>.<p class="bodytext">After falling hard on Monday on fears of the coronavirus and the lack of new fiscal stimulus from Congress, markets had a choppier session on Tuesday.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.8 per cent to 27,463.19.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The broad-based S&P 500 declined 0.3 percent to 3,390.68, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.6 percent to 11,431.35.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Nasdaq's rise reflects the tech sector's better positioning "if growth wavers due to Covid," said Quincy Krosby, Prudential Financial's chief market strategist.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The United States has been registering more than 60,000 new coronavirus cases a day in recent days, and cases are also on the upswing in France and throughout Europe where governments are enacting new restrictions.</p>.<p class="bodytext">President Donald Trump said Congress will approve a pandemic rescue package for the US economy after the November 3 election, seeming to concede defeat on efforts to reach a deal before voters decide whether to give him a second term.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Meanwhile, the Conference Board reported that US consumer confidence in October lagged analyst expectations.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Consumers' assessment of current conditions improved while expectations declined, driven primarily by a softening in the short-term outlook for jobs," The Conference Board's Senior Director of Economic Indicators Lynn Franco said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Among individual companies, shares of Xilinx jumped 8.6 per cent after it reached a deal to be acquired by rival chipmaker AMD for $35 billion. AMD shed 4.1 per cent.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Travel-oriented stocks dropped in a sign of renewed anxiety about Covid-19. American Airlines lost 4.8 per cent, Booking Holdings shed 3.0 per cent and Marriott International fell 2.7 per cent.</p>