US stocks end mixed after Tues rally

NEW YORK: US stock markets traded mixed on Wednesday, holding onto most of the gains made in Tuesday's huge bank-driven rally.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 16.42 points (0.12 percent) to 13,194.10.

The broad-market S&P 500 gave up 1.67 points (0.12 percent) to 1,394.28, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite added 0.85 percent (0.03 percent) to 3,040.73.

The quiet day followed the biggest rally of the year on Tuesday, which saw the Dow soar 218 points (1.68 percent) to its highest level since 2007, a year before the Wall Street financial meltdown.

Apple shares jumped 3.8 percent to $589.58 after brokers upped their price forecasts for the tech giant.

Morgan Stanley pinned a US$720 target for the share while Cannacord Equity aimed at US$710.

After their huge run-up on Tuesday, banks that passed the Federal Reserve's stress tests - announced on Tuesday - were quiet.

Citigroup, the biggest of the four banks to fail the tests, lost 3.54 percent.

Suntrust, which failed, rose 4.6 percent, while MetLife lost 5.8 percent.

The fourth bank, Ally, is controlled by the US Treasury and not traded.

Meanwhile shares of Goldman Sachs - which also passed the tests - sank 3.4 percent after a departing executive director from its London office slammed the bank in a newspaper column for its culture of "ripping off" clients.

"To put the problem in the simplest terms, the interests of the client continue to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making money," outgoing banker Greg Smith wrote in a New York Times opinion article.

Goldman rejected the criticism. -- AFP