Dow falls 510 points curbs losses as tech stocks recover
U.S. equity markets, in a volatile session, ended lower but off the worst levels of the day.
Large-cap technology stocks helped minimize losses as Amazon and Apple shares turned around late in the day limiting the Nasdaq Composite's decline to just 0.13%.
Tesla did its part, curbing losses, ahead of Tuesday's highly anticipated 'Battery Day' to be led by CEO Elon Musk.
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The Dow Jones Industrial Average, down over 900 points at one point, recovered to close with a loss of more than 509 points or 1.85%, while the S&P 500 fell 1.16%.
Dow member Microsoft rose after announcing plans to acquire privately-held ZeniMax, game publisher of popular titles including "The Elder Scrolls" and "Fallout," for $7.5 billion cash.
Investors got a jolt early morning on the possibility of more coronavirus shutdowns in Europe combined with ongoing uncertainty surrounding the U.S. election.
Larry Kudlow, speaking to Fox News Channel, pointed to Europe for the selling. "The market sell-off today coming out of Britain, where they've had another bounce in virus, and they may close down the economy, that would be the biggest factor in the market sell-off," he said.
With Election Day just over six weeks away, investors are gearing up for a tense battle between Democrats and Republicans over who will become the next Supreme Court justice following Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death on Friday. The debate will only heighten political tensions ahead of the election, and could possibly delay a new stimulus package.
Looking at stocks, Nikola Corp. founder Trevor Milton stepped down as executive chairman, effective immediately, less than two weeks after short-seller Hindenburg Research called the electric-truck maker a fraud. Milton, who has denied the allegations, will be replaced by board member and former General Motors Co. vice chairman Stephen Girsky. Reports of his arrest were false, the company confirmed to FOX Business.
TikTok owner ByteDance will hold an 80% stake in TikTok U.S. with Oracle Inc. and Walmart Inc. taking a minority stake after receiving approval from the Trump administration. The new company, called TikTok Global, will list on a U.S. stock exchange within 12 months and possibly set up a new headquarters in Texas.
In deal news, gene-sequencing technology maker Illumina Inc. reached an $8 billion cash and stock deal to buy privately held cancer-test developer Grail.
Elsewhere, big banks including Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group and JPMorgan Chase & CO. were lower after reports said the companies were among those that moved large amounts of allegedly illicit money for nearly two decades.
Meanwhile, Catalent Inc., Etsy Inc. and Teradyne Inc. began trading on the S&P 500 while H&R Block Inc., Coty Inc. and Kohl’s Corp. were removed from the index.
Looking at commodities, West Texas Intermediate crude oil fell $1.80 to $39.31 per barrel while gold slid $50.90 to $1,901.20 an ounce.
U.S. Treasurys rallied, pushing the yield on the 10-year note down to 0.670%.
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European markets were under pressure with Germany’s DAX weaker by 4.44%, France’s CAC off 3.83% and Britain’s FTSE down 3.46%.
In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng plunged 2.06% and China’s Shanghai Composite lost 0.63% while Japan’s Nikkei was closed for holiday.
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