Stocks opened little changed and with the exception of a mid-day dip, remained that way for most of the session. The market proved it is resilient as it remains near record highs despite chaos in the White House and the latest round of tariffs imposed on China. The market's dip came as rumors swirled of additional indictments by Robert Mueller's team but without a report materializing, the market steadied itself. In the final hour of trading, the market pared its losses and closed little changed for the day. ECONOMIC NEWS: In the U.S., initial jobless claims fell another 2,000 to 210,000 in the week ended August 18, after sliding 2,000 to 212,000 in the August 11 week. The U.S. FHFA home price index rose 0.2% to 264.0 in June after rising 0.4% in May to 263.6 and 0.3% to 262.6 in April. The U.S. flash Markit manufacturing PMI fell 0.7 ticks to 54.5 in August, after dipping 0.1 point to 55.3 in July. U.S. new home sales dropped 1.7% to 627,000 in July after falling 2.4% to 638,000 in June following a 3.3% bounce to 654,000 in May. COMPANY NEWS: Shares of Alibaba (BABA) fell 3.2% after the Chinese ecommerce giant reported first quarter results, with mobile monthly active users in June reaching 634M. On its quarterly call, the company said that it expects the growth of the Chinese middle class to drive results for years to come... L Brands (LB) shares dropped 11.4% after the parent of Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works reported better than expected second quarter results but provided a weak third quarter outlook and cut its earnings guidance for fiscal 2018... Meanwhile, Google (GOOG) was in focus after the company said in a blog post that, with help from FireEye (FEYE), it terminated accounts and YouTube channels acting as an "influence operation" linked to Iran. "We identified and terminated a number of accounts linked to the IRIB organization that disguised their connection to this effort, including while sharing English-language political content in the U.S.: 39 YouTube channels that had 13,466 total US views on relevant videos; 6 blogs on Blogger; 13 Google+ accounts," the search giant said. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers were Finisar (FNSR) and Acacia Communications (ACIA), which rose a respective 7% and 8.2% after Piper Jaffray analyst Troy Jensen upgraded both stocks to Overweight. Also higher were LexinFintech (LX) and Williams-Sonoma (WSM), which gained 15.1% and 16.4%, respectively, after reporting quarterly results. Among the notable losers was La-Z-Boy (LZB), which slipped 10.5% after KeyBanc analyst Bradley Thomas downgraded the stock to Sector Weight from Overweight on valuation. Also lower was Akorn (AKRX), which fell 17.6% after Delaware Chancery Court Judge Travis Laster said he has more to do before making a decision on the company's case against Fresenius (FSNUY). INDEXES: The Dow fell 76.62, or 0.30%, to 25,656.98, the Nasdaq lost 10.64, or 0.14%, to 7,878.46, and the S&P 500 declined 4.84, or 0.17%, to 2,856.98.
