US open: Wall Street edges up despite geopolitical question marks

dl new york city nyc ny us usa united states of america manhattan skyline city finance trading nyse dow jones sp dollar dollars usd federal reserve fed — New York CitySharecast photo / Josh White

Stocks on Wall Street were moving slightly higher for the most part, even as investors tried to make heads or tails of events at the weekend in the Russian Federation.

At 1521 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was drifting lower by 0.06% to 33,705.76, alongside a 0.16% rise for the S&P 500 to 4,355.91.

The Nasdaq Composite meanwhile was ahead by 0.42% to 13,552.01.

For his part, Morgan Stanley strategist Michael Wilson penned a research note to clients in which he warned that the "risks for a major correction have rarely been higher."

Wilson had penciled in average S&P 500 earnings per share of $185 for 2023, well beneath the consensus for $220.

He expected that would contribute to a fall in the benchmark gauge to 3,900 points by year end, before a rebound to 4,200 in the second quarter of 2024.

On the corporate front, Tesla shares were likely to fall after Goldman Sachs downgraded its stance on the electric car maker.

GS said: "While the primary reason for the change in our view is that we think the market is now giving the stock more credit for its longer-term opportunities, we are also cognizant of the difficult pricing environment for new vehicles that we think will continue to weigh on Tesla’s automotive non-GAAP gross margin this year."

Elsewhere, Blackstone was up 1% on news that it would sell warehouses to Prologis for $3.1bn.

IBM announced it had agreed to buy software provider Apptio from Vista Equity Partners for $4.6bn.

It said the acquisition "will accelerate the advancement of IBM's IT automation capabilities and enable enterprise leaders to deliver enhanced business value across technology investments".

Dow Jones - Risers

Nike Inc. (NKE) $111.86 2.13%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $33.67 2.03%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $237.67 1.38%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $304.59 1.26%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $153.05 1.12%
International Business Machines Corporation (CDI) (IBM) $130.45 0.78%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $50.67 0.68%
American Express Co. (AXP) $169.14 0.64%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $187.80 0.60%
Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) $51.67 0.59%