US stocks cut losses to end little changed on Tuesday while energy stocks rallied after US President Donald Trump said they would quit the Iran nuclear deal, confirming what many investors had expected.
Trump said the United States would withdraw from a 2015 international agreement designed to deny Tehran the ability to build nuclear weapons, and also reinstate sanctions on Iran.
The S&P energy sector erased earlier losses to end the day up 0.78 per cent as oil prices CLc1LCOc1 reduced earlier declines on bets that the sanctions would disrupt global crude supplies.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.01 per cent higher at 24,360.21, while the S&P 500 ended down 0.03 per cent to 2,671.92.
The Nasdaq Composite added 0.02 per cent to 7,266.90.
S&P industrials, financials and technology indexes rose, while utilities and telecom services were the deepest decliners, reports Reuters.
Comcast fell 5.56 per cent after Reuters reported the company is preparing to make an all-cash offer for media assets that Twenty-First Century Fox has agreed to sell to Disney for $52 billion.
After the bell, Disney edged up 0.5 per cent after it reported its quarterly results that were powered by the hit superhero movie “Black Panther”.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.04-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.19-to-1 ratio favoured advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 17 new 52-week highs and 13 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 119 new highs and 42 new lows.
Volume on US exchanges was 6.9 billion shares, compared to the 6.5 billion average over the last 20 trading days.
