SummaryCompaniesDow lower; S&P 500 and Nasdaq upDollar up slightly; some Fed officials express discomfort with rate cutsEarnings focus on tech firmsNEW YORK/LONDON, Nov 3 (Reuters) – Most major stock indexes were higher on Monday following news Amazon.com (AMZN.O), opens new tab will supply cloud-computing services to OpenAI, and the dollar hovered near a three-month high versus the euro due to waning expectations for hefty U.S. rate cuts.The multi-year $38 billion Amazon-OpenAI deal provided some support to equities, with Amazon shares more than 4% higher.
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The Federal Reserve last week cut interest rates as expected. But Chair Jerome Powell said another cut in December was “not a foregone conclusion”, contrary to investor belief that it was essentially a done deal.Some Fed officials on Friday aired their discomfort with the central bank’s decision to cut rates, even as influential Fed Governor Christopher Waller made the case for more policy easing to shore up a weakening labor market.Investors have been without most U.S. economic data releases given the ongoing U.S. government shutdown.”Investors are optimistic about AI and progress with China with respect to the trade truce. But as the market opened, we’re seeing a tale of two tapes,” said Adam Sarhan, chief executive of 50 Park Investments in New York.”The AI and tech stocks are up today and just about everything else is down. Clearly the narrowing of leadership continues in a very apparent way,” he said.
TRUMP’S TARIFFS GO TO SUPREME COURT
The U.S. Supreme Court is considering the legality of President Donald Trump’s global tariffs, with arguments set for Wednesday. Under one legal authority or another, Trump’s tariffs are expected to stay in place long-term.The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI), opens new tab fell 189.63 points, or 0.39%, to 47,375.42, the S&P 500 (.SPX), opens new tab rose 5.83 points, or 0.09%, to 6,846.03 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC), opens new tab rose 97.25 points, or 0.41%, to 23,822.21.MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe (.MIWD00000PUS), opens new tab rose 0.69 points, or 0.07%, to 1,006.92.
The pan-European STOXX 600 (.STOXX), opens new tab index rose 0.07%.Investors will also get more quarterly results from technology companies this week.Data analytics company Palantir Technologies (PLTR.O), opens new tab is due to report after the closing bell. Semiconductor firm Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O), opens new tab and Qualcomm (QCOM.O), opens new tab are also due to report this week, along with Uber (UBER.N), opens new tab and fast-food chain McDonald’s (MCD.N), opens new tab.U.S. megacap companies delivered a mixed bag of results last week. Investors are looking for a return on the extensive capital spending on AI.
DOLLAR GAINS AGAINST MAJOR CURRENCIES
The euro, which slipped as low as $1.1505 against the dollar, its weakest since August 1, pared losses to trade down 0.1% at $1.1518.That followed data from the Institute for Supply Management showing U.S. manufacturing contracted for an eighth straight month in October as new orders remained subdued, and suppliers were taking longer to deliver materials to factories against the backdrop of tariffs on imported goods.The dollar index , which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, rose 0.13% to 99.94. Against the Japanese yen , the dollar strengthened 0.02% to 154.03.Sterling weakened 0.24% to $1.3119, ahead of a knife-edge Bank of England rate decision later this week.Cryptocurrency bitcoin was down 2% at $107,486.The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes fell 0.2 basis points to 4.099%, from 4.101% late on Friday.U.S. crude fell 0.56% to $60.64 a barrel and Brent fell to $64.48 per barrel, down 0.45% on the day. Investors digested news that OPEC+ plans to end its supply increases.
Additional reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Singapore; Editing by Sonali Paul, Himani Sarkar, Emelia Sithole-Matarise, Alexander Smith and Joe Bavier
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