By US stocks wavered on Wednesday as traders looked to recover from a sell-off in the chip sector and waited for another round of corporate earnings reports.
The S&P 500 edged further from record highs reached on Monday, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average inched up. The Nasdaq was down slightly as chip stocks struggled to recover from Tuesday’s sell-off.
Chip stocks stumbled in the previous session after ASML cut its sales guidance for 2025. Shares of the Dutch chipmaker fell another 5% on Wednesday after ending Tuesday down by 16%. Other prominent chipmakers, like AMD and Nvidia, ticked slightly higher.
Corporate earnings still look on par for a strong third-quarter. The S&P 500 is on track to report over 7% year-per-year earnings growth over the last three-month period, according to an estimate from FactSet.
Morgan Stanley rounded out the big bank earnings reports on Wednesday morning, beating Wall Street’s estimates on a surge in investment banking activity. Revenue from investment banking soared 56% last quarter.
The stock jumped more than 6% shortly after the opening bell, trading around $119.60 a share.
Here’s where US indexes stood shortly after the 9:30 a.m. opening bell on Wednesday:
- S&P 500: 5,810.93, down 0.07%
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: 42,762.71, up 0.05% (+22.29 points)
- Nasdaq composite: 18,292.80, down 0.1%
Here’s what else is going on:
- Apple’s Made-in-the-USA chips signal a turnaround for the US’ big semiconductor bet.
- Goldman Sachs’ blowout earnings could be a sign of a long-awaited return of M&A.
- The stock market looks overvalued, but that’s no reason to turn bearish, according to one analyst.
- Financial stocks are being woefully underappreciated by investors, according to Morgan Stanley.
In commodities, bonds, and crypto:
- West Texas Intermediate crude oil inched up by 0.3% to $70.79 a barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark was about flat at $74.42.
- Gold ticked higher 0.8% to $2,699 an ounce.
- The 10-year Treasury yield dipped three basis points to 4.004%.
- Bitcoin was higher by 2.69% to $67,780.
