US stock market opens mixed, indices retreat from record highs

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - US stocks opened mixed Wednesday as the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 continued to decline from record highs.

The blue-chip Dow Jones was down 18 points, or 0.05%, to 35,739 at 9.47 a.m. EDT after it hit an all-time high of 35,892.92 in the previous session.

The S&P 500, on the other hand, was up 6 points, or 0.14%, to 4,580 but was below its all-time high of 4,598.53 posted Tuesday. Tesla's stock price was up 3%.

The Nasdaq rose 85 points, or 0.56%, to 15,321 with Novavax jumping 8.9%. Microsoft and Alphabet rose 2.9% and 2.5%, respectively, after announcing strong income and revenue results for the third quarter late Tuesday.

Microsoft's net income rose to $20.5 billion, up 47.5% from $13.9 billion in the same period of 2020. Revenue increased 22% to $45.3 billion, from $37.1 billion.

Google’s parent company Alphabet saw revenue increase 41% to $65.1 billion in the July-September period from nearly $46.2 billion in the same period last year. Its net income climbed to more than $18.9 billion from $11.2 billion for a 69% increase year-on-year.

The yield on 10-year US Treasury notes was down 3.5% to 1.561%, and the dollar index fell 0.17% to 93.79.

The VIX volatility index, known as the fear index, was down 1.9% to 15.68.

International benchmark Brent crude was trading at $84.82 with a 1% loss and US benchmark West Texas Intermediate was down 0.9% to $83.89.

Precious metals were slightly up with gold adding 0.16% to $1,795 per ounce and silver increasing 0.2% to $24.2.