Wall Street opened weak on Tuesday after the extended weekend, with rising oil prices weighing on sentiment by reviving concerns about higher interest rates. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1% to 52,885 points two hours before the close, while the S&P 500 declined 0.4% to 7,690. The Nasdaq 100 stood 0.1% higher at 29,578, supported by gains in artificial-intelligence-related shares. Risk appetite remained muted ahead of the European Central Bank's rate decision on Thursday, which was seen as nearly certain, and US inflation data on Friday.
Middle East tensions dominated the news flow. Traders cited attacks by Yemen's Houthi militia on Saudi Arabia, after which the Gulf region's largest oil producer halted output at some facilities near the Yemen border. Brent crude for November delivery continued to approach the $100 mark. Shares of oil companies Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips benefited from the higher oil prices.
Technology stocks were mixed. The Nasdaq 100 benefited from rising prices in many AI-related shares, although declines in heavyweight names such as Apple, Nvidia and Microsoft limited the index's gain. Chipmakers extended Friday's advances, which traders still linked to OpenAI's announcement of a more powerful AI model. AMD, ARM and Broadcom rose by as much as 6%. Intel shares jumped by almost 10% after DigiTimes reported that the processor maker was expected to raise prices, and after Northland Securities issued a positive upgrade. Qualcomm gained 3% after saying it had entered a partnership with Amazon to supply customized data-center chips, with options tied to a stock purchase.
Quantum computing stocks also attracted demand. D-Wave Quantum, Rigetti Computing and Quantinuum said they would each receive $100 million from the US Commerce Department to expand quantum computing research. In pharmaceuticals, the sector was generally weak. Dyne Therapeutics shares fell 15% after negative news from Novartis concerning comparable drug candidates. Novartis had already reported a trial failure for cardiovascular candidate Pelacarsen and then disclosed another setback for Del-desiran, a drug for myotonic dystrophy.
