By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com –The Dow snapped its three-week win streak ending just below the flatline Friday, as investor jitters over stimulus and a slump in Intel hurt sentiment on stocks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.10%, or 28 points. The S&P 500 was up 0.34 %, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.37%.
Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) slumped 10.6% intraday after the chipmaker’s better-than-expected third-quarter earnings and revenue were overshadowed by weaker margins amid a wobble in its data center business.
Analysts have warned Intel is unlikely to see a recovery in margins in the immediate future.
“DCG fell short of expectation and gross margin disappointed by 200 basis points… and gross margin faces multiple mix-related headwinds in fourth reflecting lower enterprise and government and internet of things group, and higher consumer and education NB mix,” Oppenheimer said.
The fall in Intel weighed on the broader tech market, though the Fab 5 closed mostly in the green to keep losses in check.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) ended higher, while Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) closed in the red.
And then there's that stimulus talk that weighed on sentiment, with little sign that it will be rolled out before the Nov. 3 election.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin indicated that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was dragging her feet on key differences and said that the speaker would have to make concessions to get a deal over the line.
“We’ve offered compromises,” Mnuchin told reporters at the White House, according to Bloomberg. “The speaker, on a number of issues, is still dug in. If she wants to compromise, there will be a deal.”
Stocks linked to the progress of the economy including financials, energy, and industrials were in the red.
Energy fell 1%, paced by a decline in oil prices as ongoing demand concerns amid rising Covid-19 in the U.S. and Europe offset the prospect of an extension to OPEC and its allies' production-cut accord.
In other news, Virgin Galactic (NYSE:SPCE) fell 8% after Goldman initiated coverage on the stock at neutral.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), meanwhile, fell 1% on reports it is recalling nearly 50,000 of its Model S and Model X electric vehicles because of potential suspension defects.
On the vaccine front, AstraZeneca PLC (LON:AZN) reportedly received the green light from the U.S. Federal and Drug Administration to resume its clinical trials for its Covid-19 vaccine. The news comes a day after Gilead (NASDAQ:GILD)'s antiviral drug remdesivir was given full authorization to treat patients hospitalized with Covid-19.