Nasdaq joins Dow Jones in red at open as Trump arrives in China

10am: Stocks open lower

New York’s main stock indexes have opened mostly lower, with the Dow Jones dropping 0.4% and the S&P 500 slipping 0.1%.

The tech-powered Nasdaq Composite started higher but has gone jsut below flat.

Dragging on the Dow are falls for IBM, Salesforce and Home Depot, all down over 2%, with Amex, Microsoft, Disney and Nike next.

Leading the Nasdaq 100 risers is semiconductor group Marvell Technology, up 8%, followed by peers Texas Instruments, Micron Technology and Analog Devices.

8am: Dow futures in red, Nasdaq’s green

Wall Street shares were set for a mixed start on Wednesday as investors prepare to wait for news from Donald Trump’s visit to China.

Stock futures pointed in different directions ahead of the opening bell, with Dow Jones futures down 114 points or 0.2% at 49,755, while S&P 500 futures were up 0.2% and Nasdaq futures climbed 0.7%, suggesting renewed demand for technology shares.

The mixed tone followed a subdued session the day before, when the Nasdaq and S&P 500 slipped 0.7% and 0.2%, but the Dow edged 0.1% higher.

Investors were reacting to firmer-than-expected core US inflation data and higher oil prices.

In early morning trading, WTI crude traded just below US$102 a barrel, after recovering from overnight weakness, with concerns over the US-Iran conflict continuing to underpin energy markets as the WSJ reported that the UAE had made retaliatory military attacks on Iran in previous weeks, raising concerns that the oil-producing nation could become a clearer target if Tehran’s ceasefire with Washington is abandoned.

President Trump arrived in Beijing on Wednesday night local time, ahead of a meeting with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping tomorrow. Talks are expected to cover trade, artificial intelligence, Taiwan and energy security, with the conflict involving Iran also likely to feature heavily.

Among the executives travelling with Trump are Apple chief executive Tim Cook, Tesla boss Elon Musk and senior leaders from Boeing, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Qualcomm and Visa.

The US dollar extended gains, with the DXY index hitting a week’s high.

In the absence of major earnings updates before Nvidia reports next week, other analysts said markets could drift in the near term as attention shifts from geopolitics towards US-China diplomacy, especially if any major escalation in the Middle East is avoided during the visit.

US earnings boom

The earnings season boom saw the S&P 500’s forward earnings soar 2.5% for its best-ever weekly non-crisis gain in 32 years, according to Yardeni Research.

Forward earnings are rising faster in response to Q1 earnings reports, with an “extraordinary” 51-week streak of gains that recently surpassed its prior crisis-recovery string of 46 weekly gains following the 2008 great financial crisis.

“The next achievement could be surpassing the longest string of gains in the S&P 500’s 32-year forward earnings history. That was its 77-week of consecutive gains, which ended over two decades ago during the September 23, 2004 week.”

Yardeni said the AI capex and US-onshoring boom have led to a record high in forward revenues and earnings forecasts for nine of the S&P 500’s 11 sectors.

“Even the biggest laggards, Energy and Materials, are fast improving now… The rising tide is lifting more sectors’ boats on the topline, too. Turning to their forward revenues, nine of the 11 sectors are at record highs. Notably among them, the long-suffering Materials sector just posted record high forward revenues for the first time since mid-2023. Prior to that appearance, the sector was out of the record high forward revenues club for 15 long years.”