U.S. Stocks Come Off Early Lows; Nasdaq Continues To Underperform

U.S. stocks are off their early lows around noon, even as those from the technology sector continue to underperform.

The fourth straight 75-basis point interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve, and comments from the central bank Chair Jerome Powell that signaled more interest rate hikes in the coming months hit stocks hard on Wednesday and continue to do so in today’s session as well.

The major averages are all down in negative territory, although the Dow, which plunged to 31,727.05, was just marginally down at 32,128.32 a few minutes past noon.

The S&P 500, which dropped to 3,698.15, was down 17.50 points or 0.47 percent at 3,742.19 a little while ago.

The Nasdaq is down 102.71 points or 0.98 percent at 10,422.09, more than 100 points off a low of 10,319.54 it touched earlier in the session.

Data from the Commerce Department showed the U.S. trade gap widened to a three-month high of $73.3 billion in September, up from a downwardly revised $65.7 billion in August. Exports were down 1.1 percent at $258 million, while imports increased by 1.5 percent to $331.3 million in the month.

Data released by the Labor Department showed jobless claims fell by 1,000 to 217,000 in the week ended October 27th.

Data from Markit Economics showed the S&P Global US Composite PMI was revised higher to 48.2 in October 2022 from a preliminary estimate of 47.3, compared with September’s 49.5

Data released by the Commerce Department showed new orders for US manufactured goods rose by 0.3 percent in the month of September, up from a revised 0.2 percent uptick in the prior month. Orders for durable goods rose by 0.4 percent in September, after seeing a 0.2 percent increase a month earlier.

The Institute for Supply Management’s report showed the ISM non-manufacturing business activity in the U.S. fell to a reading of 55.7 points in October from 59.1 in the previous month.

Apple Inc (AAPL) is down more than 3 percent. Visa (V), American Express (AXP), Home Depot (HD), Walt Disney (DIS) and Cisco Systems (CSCO) are down 2 to 2.5 percent.

Amazon Inc (AMZN) is down 2.5 percent, Alphabet (GOOGL) is lower by 2.2 percent, and Meta Platforms (META) is declining 1.25 percent. IBM (IBM), Microsoft (MSFT) and Verizon (VZ) are also notably lower.

Boeing (BA) shares are rising nearly 7 percent. Caterpillar (CAT), Honeywell International (HON), Chevron (CVX) and McDonalds (MCD) are gaining 1.3 to 2.5 percent.

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