Stock market today: Wall Street unchanged before the bell as earnings season rolls on | National
Wall Street is largely unchanged before the opening bell, a day after retreating from record highs as technology slipped and companies in the oil sector tumbled in tandem with oil prices.
Futures for the S&P 500 are up less than 0.1% Wednesday, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average are flat. Oil prices are retreating for the fourth straight day and have declined about 7% this week.
Morgan Stanley shares rose 2% after the New York investment bank topped Wall Street’s third-quarter revenue and profit targets on the strength of a red-hot stock market and its wealth management segment.
Trucking company J.B Hunt soared after it easily beat sales and profit projections, even as both declined from a year ago. Investors were encouraged by the Arkansas company’s improved profit margins and sent shares up 7.4% before the bell.
United Airlines ticked up about 1.2% in extended hours trading after the carrier easily beat third-quarter profit forecasts and announced a $1.5 billion share buyback.
In Europe at midday, Britain’s FTSE 100 advanced 0.7% after the government reported that inflation in the U.K. fell to 1.7% in September, its lowest level in more than three years. That reinforced expectations that the Bank of England will cut interest rates at its next policy meeting.
In Paris, the CAC 40 lost 0.5%, while Germany’s DAX slipped 0.3%.
In Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index fell 1.8% to 39,180.30, leading the declines, as tech stocks fell after Dutch computer chip equipment supplier ASML warned of a slower recovery in demand for semiconductors outside of the AI boom.
Chip maker Tokyo Electron sank 9.2% and Lasertec Corp., which makes equipment to inspect chips, lost 13.4%.
In reporting ASML’s latest quarterly results, its CEO Christophe Fouquet said AI continues to offer strong upside potential, but “other market segments are taking longer to recover.” ASML’s stock traded in the United States fell 16.3%.
“Anxiety has also intensified with reports that the U.S. is considering new restrictions on chip exports to specific countries, particularly targeting Nvidia and AMD, citing national security concerns,” Anderson Alves of ActivTrades said in a commentary. Traders are watching for an earnings report from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., due Thursday. TMSC’s shares fell 2.3% on Wednesday.
Elsewhere in Asia, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.4% to 8,284.70.
In Seoul, the Kospi shed 0.9% to 2,610.36, while Taiwan’s Taiex slipped 1.2%. India’s Sensex lost 0.5%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng bounced between gains and losses and closed 0.2% lower, at 20,286.85, while the Shanghai Composite index edged less than 0.1% higher, to 3,202.95.
The central banks in the Philippines and Thailand cut their benchmark interest rates, moving to relieve pressure on their economies.
The SET in Bangkok rose 1.3% after the Bank of Thailand cut its main rate by 0.25 percentage points to 2.25%, saying it intended to help alleviate the growing burden of household debt that has been weighing on the economy.
Crude prices have been weakening as China’s flagging economic growth raises concerns about demand for oil. At the same time, worries have receded about Israel possibly attacking Iranian oil facilities as part of its retaliation to Iran’s missile attack early this month. Iran is a major producer of crude, and a strike could upend its exports to China and elsewhere.
Oil slipped back into losses early Wednesday, with benchmark U.S. crude oil giving up 29 cents to $70.29 per barrel. Brent crude declined 30 cents to $73.95 per barrel.
The dollar inched down to 149.19 Japanese yen from 149.22 yen. The euro rose modestly, to $1.0896 from $1.0892.
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