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Dow lower; S&P 500 and Nasdaq up
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Dollar up slightly; some Fed officials express discomfort
with
rate cuts
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Earnings focus on tech firms
(Updates to late morning)
By Caroline Valetkevitch and Amanda Cooper
NEW YORK/LONDON, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Most major stock
indexes were higher on Monday following news Amazon.com ( AMZN )
will supply cloud-computing services to OpenAI, and the dollar
hovered near a three-month high versus the euro due to waning
expectations for hefty U.S. rate cuts.
The multi-year $38 billion Amazon-OpenAI deal provided some
support to equities, with Amazon ( AMZN ) shares more than 4% higher.
The Federal Reserve last week cut interest rates as
expected. But Chair Jerome Powell said another cut in December
was "not a foregone conclusion", contrary to investor belief
that it was essentially a done deal.
Some Fed officials on Friday aired their discomfort with the
central bank's decision to cut rates, even as influential Fed
Governor Christopher Waller made the case for more policy easing
to shore up a weakening labor market.
Investors have been without most U.S. economic data releases
given the ongoing U.S. government shutdown.
"Investors are optimistic about AI and progress with China
with respect to the trade truce. But as the market opened, we're
seeing a tale of two tapes," said Adam Sarhan, chief executive
of 50 Park Investments in New York.
"The AI and tech stocks are up today and just about
everything else is down. Clearly the narrowing of leadership
continues in a very apparent way," he said.
TRUMP'S TARIFFS GO TO SUPREME COURT
The U.S. Supreme Court is considering the legality of
President Donald Trump's global tariffs, with arguments set for
Wednesday. Under one legal authority or another, Trump's tariffs
are expected to stay in place long-term.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 189.63 points,
or 0.39%, to 47,375.42, the S&P 500 rose 5.83 points, or
0.09%, to 6,846.03 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 97.25
points, or 0.41%, to 23,822.21.
MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe rose
0.69 points, or 0.07%, to 1,006.92.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.07%.
Investors will also get more quarterly results from
technology companies this week.
Data analytics company Palantir Technologies ( PLTR ) is due
to report after the closing bell. Semiconductor firm Advanced
Micro Devices ( AMD ) and Qualcomm ( QCOM ) are also due to
report this week, along with Uber ( UBER ) and fast-food chain
McDonald's.
U.S. megacap companies delivered a mixed bag of results last
week. Investors are looking for a return on the extensive
capital spending on AI.
DOLLAR GAINS AGAINST MAJOR CURRENCIES
The euro, which slipped as low as $1.1505 against the
dollar, its weakest since August 1, pared losses to trade down
0.1% at $1.1518.
That followed data from the Institute for Supply Management
showing U.S. manufacturing contracted for an eighth straight
month in October as new orders remained subdued, and suppliers
were taking longer to deliver materials to factories against the
backdrop of tariffs on imported goods.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback
against a basket of currencies, rose 0.13% to 99.94. Against the
Japanese yen, the dollar strengthened 0.02% to 154.03.
Sterling weakened 0.24% to $1.3119, ahead of a
knife-edge Bank of England rate decision later this week.
Cryptocurrency bitcoin was down 2% at $107,486.
The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes fell
0.2 basis points to 4.099%, from 4.101% late on Friday.
U.S. crude fell 0.56% to $60.64 a barrel and Brent
fell to $64.48 per barrel, down 0.45% on the day.
Investors digested news that OPEC+ plans to end its supply
increases.