US stock markets opened lower on Thursday, with weakness in the technology sector due to concerns about overinvestment in AI and related financing issues. At the same time, new statistics show that US producer prices posted their highest annual increase since 2022 in September. Producer prices rose 6.3 percent year-over-year, versus an expected 5.3 percent. Retail sales meanwhile increased 0.8 percent month-over-month, compared with an expected 0.3 percent.
The broad S&P 500 index was down 0.3 percent at 7,696.87 at 15.51.
The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 0.9 percent to 26,454.90.
By sector, healthcare is performing best, up 2.62 percent, while IT is showing the weakest performance, down 1.80 percent.
Major bank Bank of New York Mellon reported revenue that rose 11.8 percent to USD 5.68 billion in the third quarter, above the expected USD 5.55 billion. Adjusted earnings per share increased to USD 2.37, which was 4.4 percent better than expected. The stock fell 1.4 percent.
Consumer goods company Kimberly-Clark reiterates its full-year guidance following preliminary third-quarter figures. Adjusted operating profit amounted to USD 677 million, versus an expected USD 674.9 million. Organic sales growth is expected to be approximately one percentage point lower than the category growth of 1.7 percent, mainly due to disruptions in China. Adjusted earnings per share are expected to increase by a high single-digit percentage. The stock rose more than 4 percent.
Staffing giant Manpower reported adjusted earnings per share of USD 1.01, in line with expectations. For the fourth quarter, earnings of USD 1.03–1.13 per share are expected, versus an expected USD 1.10. Becky Frankiewicz will take over as CEO on January 1, while Jonas Prising will become executive chairman. The stock fell nearly 14 percent.
Online broker Charles Schwab reported revenue in line with expectations in the third quarter. Adjusted earnings per share rose to USD 1.69 from USD 1.31, which was 2.4 percent better than analysts’ expectations of USD 1.65. The stock fell 5 percent.
Technology giant Apple plans to launch its first AI features in China in December through the iOS 27.3 update, Bloomberg News reports. The launch will include older features in Apple Intelligence, but not the new AI assistant Siri. Apple has partnered with Alibaba and Baidu to adapt the technology to the Chinese market. The stock rose 0.7 percent.
Among semiconductor companies, Micron Technology and AMD fell 3.9 and 5.7 percent, respectively. AI cloud provider Coreweave fell 8 percent. The sector also performed weakly on Wednesday.
On the analyst front, Deutsche Bank upgraded retail giant Walmart to Buy from Hold. The stock rose 3.4 percent.
The US 10-year yield fell 14 basis points to 5.05 percent.
Brent crude fell 1.57 percent to USD 104.39, while WTI crude rose 0.50 percent to USD 95.57.
IndexPriceChange todayChange this yearS&P 5007,696.87-0.29%12.44%Nasdaq Composite26,454.90-0.89%13.82%Consumer discretionary1,854.340.21%-3.84%Consumer staples988.192.30%14.26%Energy1,026.20-1.37%49.30%Financials910.860.49%-0.08%Healthcare2,080.862.62%15.23%Industrials1,401.09-0.90%6.70%Materials635.260.79%10.59%Real estate267.680.85%4.96%IT7,000.71-1.80%23.17%Utilities422.80-0.25%-2.54%Telecom477.210.80%5.49%Source: FactSet
