Boeing Plunge Hits Dow, Other Markets Rise

US stocks closed mixed on Tuesday, with the worries over Boeing's 737 Max 8 planes, dragging down its stock price which hit the Dow Jones Industrial Average. However, the other major indices rose.

Investors were comforted by the latest benign reading on US inflation and shrugged off the British parliament's second crushing rejection of Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal.

With global skies increasingly off limits to its top-selling 737 MAX aircraft in the wake of Sunday's fatal crash in Ethiopia, Boeing saw its stock tumble 6.1 percent -- leaving it down more than 11 percent since Friday.

That undermined the Dow, which fell 0.4 percent to 25,554.

However, the S&P 500 index gained 0.3 percent to 2,791, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.4 percent to 7,591.

"The transports are down. The Dow is down. That is mostly due to Boeing," Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital told AFP. "Basically the market is moving higher. The positive momentum is starting to re-emerge in the market."

"The inflation data was a non-event," he added.

The Labor Department reported early on Tuesday that consumer inflation in February hit its slowest annual pace in more than two years due to weak energy prices -- reaffirming the dovish stance on interest rates taken by the Federal Reserve.

Meanwhile, British lawmakers voted to reject an agreement for exiting the European Union, plunging the country into complete uncertainty with just over two weeks to go until its scheduled date of departure and increasing the chances it could crash out without a deal.

"That is not having a major effect before the actual separation between the UK and the EU," Cardillo said. (AFP)