Wall Street opens modestly lower despite upbeat earnings figures

Legislation targeting the Hong Kong protests weighs on the market sentiment.
Risk-sensitive technology shares fall sharply in early trade.
Bank of America shares post strong gains boosted by upbeat profit figures.

Eren Sengezer FXStreet

Major equity indexes in the United States (US) started the day in the negative territory amid souring market sentiment. As of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.25% on the day while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite were both erasing 0.35%.

The House of Representatives in the US on Tuesday passed legislation to formally support pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong and caused concerns over the trade conflict with China re-escalating.

Among the 11-major S&P 500 sectors, the risk-sensitive Technology Index is down 0.8% on the day. Despite the dismal market mood, however, the upbeat third-quarter earnings figures from the US' second-largest bank, th Bank of America, allowed the company's shares to rise sharply and provided a boost to the Financials Index, which was last posting modest daily gains.

Author

Eren Sengezer

FXStreet

As an economist at heart, Eren Sengezer specializes in the assessment of the short-term and long-term impacts of macroeconomic data, central bank policies and political developments on financial assets.

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