While you were sleeping: Wall St ekes out slight gain in volatile session

Wall Street ended slightly higher after a volatile session that touched record highs and also losses as investors assessed the impact of testimony by recently-fired FBI Director James Comey to Congress.

At the close of trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 8.84 popints, or 0.04%, to 21,182.53. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.4% to 6321.76 and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 0.03% to 2433.79.

Earlier in the day, the Dow touched a record high 21,265.69 while the Nasdaq climbed to a record 6318.39.

However, US stock futures slipped an hour after the close as UK exit polls suggested the governing Conservative Party failed to achieve an overall majority in Thursday’s election.

The UK pound fell 1.3% against the dollar at $US1.2781 in late New York trading.

Stocks followed a pattern of trading that has been largely immune to political ructions at home and abroad.

No alarmist view
"I think the market is taking less of an alarmist review of this situation [Comey's testimony] because there is no smoking gun here," Thomas Simons, money market economist at Jefferies & Co in New York, told Reuters.

"So it's not particularly impactful for thinking about ... Trump's economic agenda to go through."

The Dow was buoyed by gaions in financial stocks, with Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase both up 1.5%, while Merck and Walt Disney led the decliners.

Shares of Nordstrom jumped 10% after the company said members of the Nordstrom family have formed a group to explore the possibility of pursuing a "going private transaction."

Shares of Yahoo surged 10.2% to its highest close since 2000 after reports that about 2100 people at the firm and at AOL would lose their jobs after Verizon Communications completes its acquisition. This was immediately after shareholders approved the transaction.

The yield on the 10-year US Treasury note rose to 2.195% from 2.180% on Wednesday. 

Stocks stall in Europe
In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index finished the day at 389.15, barely budging from the previous close.

France's CAC40 Index edged 0.02% lower, while the UK's FTSE 100 Index slid 0.4% and Germany's DAX Index rose 0.3%.

The euro declined after the European Central Bank kept its interest rates unchanged, and upgraded its growth forecast while cutting its expectations for inflation.

The ECB now predicts the region's gross domestic product will expand at 1.9% in 2017, up from its previous estimate for 1.8% previously, while it sees 2018 growth at 1.8%, up from its previous forecast for 1.7%.

"The risks surrounding the euro area growth outlook are considered to be broadly balanced," ECB President Mario Draghi said at a press conference in Tallinn, Estonia.

"On the one hand, the current positive cyclical momentum increases the chances of a stronger than expected economic upswing.

"On the other hand, downside risks relating to predominantly global factors continue to exist."

Interest rates on hold
The central bank also said that the Governing Council expects the key ECB interest rates "to remain at their present levels for an extended period of time, and well past the horizon of the net asset purchases."

It no longer mentioned the potential to cut rates.

"Even though [the ECB decision] was well telegraphed over the last 24 hours, the future expectations on inflation came in a bit lower than the market had been anticipating," Dean Popplewell, chief currency strategist at Oanda in Toronto, told Reuters. "That sort of weighed on the euro."

(BusinessDesk)