Wall Street today: S&P 500, Nasdaq drop on big tech & chip stocks sell-off over China trade sanction worries

Wall Street: S&P 500 and Nasdaq declined on Wednesday, with major chip and tech stocks leading the fall on worries about trade sanctions on companies giving China access to advanced semiconductor technology.

A report by news agency Bloomberg said President Joe Biden is considering the most severe trade restrictions available if companies like the Netherlands’ ASML and Japan’s Tokyo Electron continue to ship advanced semiconductor technology to China.

At 9:45 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 28.20 points, or 0.07 per cent, at 40,982.68, the S&P 500 was down 54.33 points, or 0.96 per cent, at 5,612.87, and the Nasdaq Composite was down 338.95 points, or 1.83 per cent, at 18,170.39.

At the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 91.91 points, or 0.22 per cent, to 40,862.57. The S&P 500 was lower by 57.13 points, or 1.01 per cent, at 5,610.07, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 321.15 points, or 1.74 per cent, to 18,188.19.

Chip giant Nvidia shed 4.3 per cent and ASML's US-listed company slumped 9.2 per cent.

Stocks of Marvell Technology, Broadcom, Qualcomm , Micron Technology, Advanced Micro Devices and Arm Holdings fell over 5 per cent each.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing’s US-listed shares lost 6.4 per cent.

However, Intel bucked the chips rout to gain 3 per cent.

Shares of Apple, Microsoft Meta Platforms and Tesla fell between 1.2 per cent and 2.7 per cent.

Johnson & Johnson stock rose 2.7 per cent after posting better than expected second quarter results.

Spirit Airlines slumped 8.2 per cent after it cut its second quarter revenue outlook.

In the bond market, the 10-year Treasury yield was steady at 4.16 per cent.

Bullion

Gold prices rose to a record high on Wednesday on Fed rate cut optimism.

Spot gold was up 0.1 per cent at $2,469.80 per ounce as of 1135 GMT, after hitting an all-time high of $2,482.29 earlier in the session. US gold futures gained 0.3 per cent to $2,474.80. Silver fell 1.2 per cent to $31.02 per ounce.

Crude oil

Oil prices gained on Wednesday on a decline in US oil stockpiles and a weaker dollar.

Brent crude oil futures were up 55 cents, or 0.7 per cent, at $84.28 a barrel by 1242 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate crude futures were up 75 cents, or 0.9 per cent, at $81.51.