US open: Major indices look to bounce back from bear market lows

dl exchange place wall st street pl new york city nyc ny nyse stock exchange dow jones sp nasdaq finance dollar dollars us usa united states of america — Exchange PlaceSharecast photo / Josh White

Wall Street stocks were higher at the open on Wednesday as major indices searched for direction following fresh bear market lows.

As of 1525 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.39% at 29,247.80 and the S&P 500 came out the gate 0.43% firmer at 3,662.91, while the Nasdaq Composite was 0.20% stronger at 10,850.79.

The Dow opened 112.81 points higher on Wednesday, reclaiming some of the previous session's losses.

In focus ahead of the bell was news from the Bank of England that it will buy long-dated UK government bonds as part of an effort to stabilise the pound after the currency dropped to a record low against the dollar of $1.03. Sterling was changing hands at $1.0698 at the open on Wednesday.

Also drawing an amount of investor attention, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note topped 4% for the first time since 2010 before slipping to 3.839%, while the yield on its two-year counterpart dropped to 4.180% in early trade.

On the macro front, US mortgage applications fell 3.7% week-on-week in the seven days ended 23 September after rising 3.8% in the previous week as interest rates continued to increase. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, applications to refinance a home loan dropped 10.9% and applications to purchase a home dipped 0.4%.

Elsewhere, an advance reading of August's goods trade balance showed the goods gap drop for a fifth consecutive month to $87.3bn, the lowest reading seen since October 2021. According to the Census Bureau, imports fell 1.7% to $267.1bn and exports declined 0.9% to $179.8bn.

Finally, US pending homes fell 24.2% year-on-year in August, the biggest annual decrease since April 2020. The National Association of Realtors stated that all four regions had posted double-digit declines.

In the corporate space, shares in tech behemoth Apple were nearly 4% lower at the open after Bloomberg revealed the company will abandon plans to hike new iPhone production as demand for the flagship handset failed to meet expectations.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

Dow Jones - Risers

Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) $44.95 2.65%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $274.36 2.11%
Boeing Co. (BA) $129.41 1.49%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $295.41 1.38%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $164.57 1.31%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $97.53 1.28%
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $97.00 1.19%
Amgen Inc. (AMGN) $228.41 1.07%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $106.98 1.07%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $142.38 0.96%