© Reuters
Investing.com — U.S. stocks traded in a mixed fashion around the flatline Tuesday, as investors take stock of the strong gains in November so far while digesting clues about the spending habits of U.S. consumers heading into the key holiday shopping season.
By 09:30 ET (14:30 GMT), the rose 14 points, or 0.1%, 2hile the traded 6 points, or 0.1%, lower and the dropped 5 points, or 0.1%.
The main Wall Street indices are on course to post strong gains in November – the DJIA set to finish the month 6.9% higher, the up 8.5% and the technology-heavy Nasdaq 10.8% higher.
Affirm gains after Cyber Monday
The focus Tuesday is on the retail sector, with spending by American consumers expected to have surged to an all-time high of over $12 billion on Cyber Monday, the biggest U.S. online shopping day, according to preliminary estimates from Adobe (NASDAQ:) Digital Insights cited by Reuters.
A record number of holiday shoppers are also expected to use buy now, pay later services given the financially-stressed nature of many consumers.
This resulted in fintech company Affirm (NASDAQ:) posting share price gains of almost 12% on Monday, and the company traded a further 2.4% higher early Tuesday.
Elsewhere, Zscaler (NASDAQ:) stock fell 3.2% after the cybersecurity company kept its full-year billings forecast unchanged even after it topped estimates with its results for the latest quarter.
Cybersecurity technology company CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:) is expected to report earnings after the bell.
Fed speakers in focus
The economic data slate saw U.S. annual home price growth accelerated again in September, rising 6.1% on a year-over-year basis in September, up from an upwardly revised 5.8% increase in the prior month.
This underscored the rebound of the housing market as it entered the final quarter of the year.
The release is due later in the session, while there are a number of Federal Reserve officials scheduled to speak throughout the day.
However, most eyes will be on the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, the , on Thursday, which is expected to have risen just 0.1% on the month in November, a drop from 0.4% in September.
Oil gains with OPEC+ meeting in sight
Oil prices rose Tuesday amid hopes that OPEC+ will agree to extend or even deepen its ongoing production cuts at a meeting later this week.
By 09:30 ET, the futures traded 1% higher at $75.63 a barrel, while the contract climbed 0.9% to $80.62 a barrel.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, a group known as OPEC+, is set to hold an online ministerial meeting on Thursday to discuss production targets for 2024.
The meeting was delayed from Sunday after disagreements between members over production targets, but the group’s de facto leader Saudi Arabia has seemingly worked to find consensus on the need to deepen output cuts.
There has been a sharp decline in oil prices over the last month, due to concerns that the market was oversupplied, largely based on strong production by non-OPEC countries such as the United States.
The is set to release its latest estimate of U.S. crude stocks later in the session, after the industry body detailed a hefty build last week.
Additionally, traded 0.7% higher at $2,027.35/oz, while traded 0.2% higher at 1.0978.
(Oliver Gray contributed to this item.)
