Yahoo Finance Stocks - Wall Street Flat as Trade Tensions Creep In
Investing.com – Wall Street opened flat on Wednesday, as investors digested a flurry of earnings results and trade tensions resurfaced.
The S&P 500 gained a quarter of a point, or 0.01%, to 2,809.79 as of 9:37 AM ET (13:37 GMT), while the Dow decreased 10 points, or 0.04%, to 25,109.01 and the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite was down four points, or 0.06%, to 7,850.33.
Earnings season continues on Wednesday, with Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) surging 4.26% after its earnings came in higher than expected, while CSX (NASDAQ:CSX) increased 5.00% after beating expectations.
IBM (NYSE:IBM), American Express (NYSE:AXP) and eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) are scheduled to report after the closing bell.
Meanwhile, Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) rallied 0.33%. And Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRKa) gained 2.67% after Warren Buffett's firm loosened its policy on stock buybacks.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) fell 0.48%, while eBay was down 0.19% and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) decreased 0.25%.
Trade tensions also lingered on investors, after China’s Ministry of Commerce said the country would take more steps to compensate for losses from U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is expected to deliver his semiannual testimony to the House Financial Services Committee at 10:00 AM ET (14:00 GMT). At his speech on Tuesday before the Senate Banking Committee, Powell reiterated the central bank should gradually increase interest rates. However, global trade tensions and fiscal policy remain uncertain, he added.
In Europe, stocks were up. Germany’s DAX rose 107 points, or 0.85%, while in France the CAC 40 increased 34 points, or 0.63%, and in London the FTSE 100 was up 59 points, or 0.78%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 gained 26 points, or 0.75%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 inched up 21 points, or 0.22%.
In commodities, gold futures fell 0.26% to $1,224.10 a troy ounce, while crude oil futures decreased 0.77% to $66.64 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rallied 0.25% to 94.97.
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