US equity close: An afternoon dip is bought

Closing changes for the main North American markets:

• S&P 500 +0.3%
• Nasdaq Comp +0.5%
• DJIA -0.3%
• Russell 2000 -0.5%
• Toronto TSX Comp -0.4%

It was a bit of a strange one with a strong dump in stocks in the US afternoon that was eventually swallowed up. There was talk of a $10 billion dump in the futures market that kicked it off.

Update: Amazon shares are down 6% after hours on softer Q1 sales guidance, which sees $151-$155.5 billion in sales compared to $158 billion expected. For Q4, sales were $187.8 billion, which was only a touch above $187.299 billion expected.

This article was written by Adam Button at www.forexlive.com.