US open: Stocks mixed as investors await Q3 tech earnings

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 trading got off to a mixed start on Monday as market participants prepped for a week packed full of earnings from the nation's top tech firms.

As of 1520 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.81% at 31,333.42, while the S&P 500 was up 0.28% at 3,763.43 and the Nasdaq Composite started off the session 0.78% weaker at 10,775.36.

The Dow Jones opened 250.86 points higher on Monday, extending gains recorded in the previous session as hopes that the Federal Reserve may slow rate hikes offset disappointing earnings from Snapchat owner Snap.

Earnings will again be in focus over the next five days, with Google owner Alphabet and Microsoft set to report on Tuesday, Facebook parent company Meta ready to publish its latest set of quarterly numbers on Wednesday, and Apple and Amazon ready to close out the week on Friday.

Also in the corporate space, Tesla shares traded lower after the electric carmaker revealed it will lower prices on certain electric vehicles being sold in China.

On the macro front, the Chicago Fed's national activity index printed at 0.10 in September, unchanged from August's revised reading and pointing to modest growth in overall economic activity throughout the month.

Elsewhere, a flash reading of S&P Global's manufacturing purchasing managers index revealed a drop to 49.9 in October from 52 in September, well below expectations for a reading of 51 and the sector's first contraction since June 2020. The services PMI dropped to 46.6 in October from 49.3 in the previous month, well below market forecasts of 49.2, while the composite PMI declined from 49.5 in September to 47.3 in October, the second-fastest pace of contraction in the sector since 2009,

Data from China was also drawing an amount of investor attention at the open, with news that gross domestic product in the People's Republic had expanded 3.9% year-on-year in the third quarter. That was better than the 3.3% rise pencilled-in by economists and well ahead of the 0.4% print seen back in the second quarter.

Also in focus, the foreign ministers of France, the United Kingdom, and the United States reiterated their support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity and discussed their determination to continue supporting Kyiv's efforts to defend its territory for as long as it takes.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

Dow Jones - Risers

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