US stocks steady after tech losses; Morgan Stanley impresses with quarterly result

Investing.com -- U.S. stocks steadied Wednesday after the previous session's sharp selloff triggered by weak earnings from chipmaking bellwether ASML (AS:ASML ), as investors digested more corporate earnings. 

At 09:35 ET (13:35 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 44 points, or 0.1%, while S&P 500 dropped 2 points, or 0.1%, and NASDAQ Composite fell 14 points, or 0.1%. Quarterly earnings continue  

Investors have had more earnings to study Wednesday, including more from the banking sector.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS ) stock rose 4% after the lender's profit surpassed estimates on a bumper third quarter for investment banking that had also buoyed rivals.

This rounded off the numbers from the sector, following largely positive earnings from the likes of Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS ), Citigroup (NYSE:C ) and Bank of America (NYSE:BAC ). 

Elsewhere, Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT ) rose 1.7% after the company slightly lifted its annual profit forecast, after beating Wall Street estimates for quarterly earnings on strong sales of its medical devices including its glucose-monitoring products.

United Airlines (NASDAQ:UAL ) stock rose 4.9% after the carrier reporting third-quarter earnings ahead of expectations and announcing a new $1.5 billion share repurchase program.

The earnings season is set to peak next week with prints from a string of major technology firms, including Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL ) and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA ), following on from Thursday's numbers from Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX ). Steadying after hefty losses  

The main indices closed sharply lower on Tuesday, driven by weakness by semiconductor manufacturing equipment maker ASML (NASDAQ:ASML ), which cut its annual forecast on weak demand for chips not related to artificial intelligence.

Chipmakers were also rattled by a report suggesting the U.S. government was considering limiting sales of AI-related chips to certain countries - a scenario that heralds weaker sales.  Crude steadies after losses

Oil prices steadied Wednesday after recent sharp losses, as traders assessed signs of possibly cooling tensions in the Middle East and concerns over a slowdown in demand growth from top exporter China.

By 09:35 ET, the Brent contract climbed 0.1% to $74.29 per barrel, while U.S. crude futures (WTI) traded 0.1% higher at $70.64 per barrel.

Both benchmarks plummeted more than 4% in the prior session to a near two-week low after a media report said Israel will not attack Iran’s oil and nuclear facilities, quelling fears of a major escalation in the Middle East.

Weak economic readings from China also weighed, while both the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and the International Energy Agency cut their demand growth outlooks for 2024 this week.

(Ambar Warrick contributed to this article.)  

Source: Investing.com