While you were sleeping: Wall Street hits record highs

Traders works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Photo / Getty Images

Wall Street was mixed as investors awaited the annual meeting of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen is set to speak on Friday.

In 2.53pm trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average eked out a 0.05 per cent gain. However, the Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 0.18 per cent. In 2.38pm trading, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index inched 0.03 per cent lower.

"The key event this week is the Jackson Hole central bank policy forum which begins on Thursday," Citigroup strategists including Peter Goves wrote in a note to clients, Bloomberg reported.

"The market spotlight will likely focus on Yellen, given the generally low US inflation environment and the likelihood of Fed balance sheet reduction occurring relatively soon."

US Treasuries were steady, with the yield on the 10-year note at 2.19 per cent, near the lowest in seven weeks.

"That confluence of strong growth and low inflation, which is somewhat like nirvana for equity investors, we don't think can last forever," Wayne Wicker, chief investment officer at ICMA-RC in Washington, DC, told Reuters.

"We're hopefully getting a couple of more data points to see where the Fed takes their temperature on where they're feeling the economy is at this juncture so that we can anticipate if something happens in the fourth quarter or not," Wicker noted.

Wall Street's fear gauge-the CBOE Volatility Index or the VIX-fell 4 per cent to 13.69.

The Dow moved higher as gains in shares of Home Depot and those of Cisco, up 1.3 percent and 1.2 per cent respectively recently, outweighed declines in shares of Nike and those of Goldman Sachs, down 2.9 per cent and 1.1 per cent respectively.

Nike shares fell after Jefferies downgraded its rating and price target on the stock.

"The athletic footwear cycle and Nike brand power are strong, but the competitive landscape should make share gains and margin expansion elusive," analyst Randal Konik wrote in a note to clients Monday, according to CNBC.

"With expectations for less robust fundamentals, Nike's premium valuation conflicts with intensifying US competition unfolding," Konik noted. "Adidas has been successful in leveraging the spark from its fashion retro footwear resurgence into other categories like running and athletic apparel."

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index ended the day with a 0.4 per cent decrease from the previous close. The UK's FTSE 100 Index drifted 0.07 per cent lower, while France's CAC 40 Index declined 0.5 per cent, and Germany's DAX Index fell 0.8 per cent.

Shares of Switzerland's Lindt & Sprungli rose, closing 2.3 per cent higher, after UBS upgraded the stock to a buy.

"Despite a trend towards healthy snacking, Lindt's sales growth should be stronger than the market assumes, given its products are perceived as an indulgence," UBS analysts noted.