NEW YORK, Oct 27 — Tech stocks climbed in opening US trading today but the Dow struggled to find traction as it became clear a new stimulus package from Congress was not going to happen.
About 30 minutes after the opening bell, the benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.1 per cent at 27,646.50.
The broad-based S&P 500 climbed 0.1 per cent to 3,404.93, however the tech-rich Nasdaq increased 0.6 per cent to 11,425.03.
Traders had bet for months that Congress would come to an agreement on another massive spending package to aid the economy as it struggles to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
But downbeat comments from lawmakers in recent days indicate that probably won’t happen before the November 3 election, and Wall Street saw its worst one-day slump since September in yesterday’s trading.
“Stimulus talks have not produced an agreement (and likely won’t before the election now that the Senate has adjourned), and the election uncertainty is still there, which will be the case at least until November 3 and perhaps for some time thereafter,” analysts at Briefing.com wrote.
Traders were also digesting a slew of third-quarter earnings reports as well as news of a major tie-up.
Advance Micro Devices announced before markets opened that it had struck a deal to buy computer chipmaking rival Xilinix in a US$35 billion (RM146) megadeal that consolidates the sector.
The acquisition will help AMD ramp up its challenge to Intel for personal computer chips, and broaden its portfolio to products for data centers, industrial systems and other sectors.
AMD shares were down 3.8 per cent after reporting its third-quarter profit more than tripled from a year ago to US$390 million as revenue grew 56 per cent to US$2.8 billion.
Xilinx was up 8.9 per cent.
3M fell 2.2 per cent after it reported third quarter earnings that had fallen overall despite support from strong demand for protective masks to counter the pandemic. — AFP
