US stock market mixed, Nasdaq dives 1%

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - US stock market opened Monday mixed, while Nasdaq was down more than 1% shortly after opening despite some firms saw their stock price hit record highs.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 52 points, or 0.15%, to 34,380 at 9.57 a.m. EDT.

The S&P 500, on the other hand, was down 13 points, or 0.4%, to 4,340.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq dove 162 points, or 1.1%, to 14,405 although video streaming firm Netflix and pharmaceutical company Merck saw their shares hit all-time highs of $625.98 and $84.55, respectively.

Tesla shares were up 3.9% at the time after the American electric carmaker announced Saturday it made 241,300 vehicle deliveries in the second quarter of 2021-- up 73.2% from 139,300 deliveries the same period of last year.

Palo Alto-based company said its vehicle production increased almost 64% to 237,823 from 145,036 during the same period.

Rising inflation continued to be the biggest concern in the markets, while property values have soared.

Fitch Ratings said Friday home prices in the US marked their highest annual growth rate of 19.7% in history as of July 2021, adding they are 11.7% overvalued on a population-weighted average basis.

"Home prices in 75% of the country's metropolitan statistical areas are considered overvalued ... Sales of existing homes are starting to slow and uncertainty remains around the impact of [President Joe] Biden administration's housing policies on affordability of home prices," the global rating agency said in a statement.

After climbing above 1.5%, its highest level since this June, the yield on 10-year US Treasury notes was down last week, but climbed back to 1.505% for a 2.6% gain.

The VIX volatility index also jumped 5.5% to 22.31 at the time with rising uncertainty amid Chinese real estate developer Evergrande.

The US dollar index, on the other hand, was down 0.26% to 93.28.

Precious metals reversed course from their last week increase with gold falling 0.4% to $1,754 per ounce, and silver losing 0.1% to $22.51 an ounce.

Oil prices were on the rise around their three-year highs with Brent crude trading at $81.5 per barrel with a 2.8% gain, and US benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude was at $77.84 – a 2.6% increase.