By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com -- The Dow slipped Tuesday, as data showing fresh signs of a slowing economy soured sentiment and overshadowed mostly positive quarterly results from retailers.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.5%, or 154 points, the Nasdaq was flat, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.3%.
Manufacturing and services activity dropped in August, with the latter falling further into contraction with a reading of 44.1, stoking fresh worries of a slowing economy.
Treasury yields paused their recent ascent following the data, supporting a recovery in tech, with chip stocks in particular tacking on gains.
ON Semiconductor (NASDAQ:ON), Wolfspeed (NYSE:WOLF), and NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) led the move higher in the broader chip sector amid signs of improving sentiment in demand.
UBS pointed to slowing rate of decline in price of AMD and Nvidia graphics cards as the recent rebound in cryptocurrencies supports demand from GPU miners.
Elsewhere in tech, Zoom Video Communications (NASDAQ:ZM) plunged more than 16% after slashing full-year guidance following mixed quarterly results as the videoconferencing software company struggles with increased competition and waning demand seen during the pandemic.
Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) jumped more than 12% after reporting fiscal fourth-quarter results that topped Wall Street estimates, led by a surge in billings amid growing cybersecurity demand.
Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) fell more than 7% after the social media giant's former security chief Peiter Zatko said in a whistleblower complaint that the company misled regulators about its efforts to curb spam accounts.
A surge in energy stocks helped the broader market steady as oil prices climbed more than 3% after Saudi Arabia touted the prospect of production cuts by major oil producers to boost prices.
The remarks from the Saudi Energy Minister bin Salman possibly signal that Saudi Arabia is preparing for the prospect of the U.S. agreeing to a “renewal of the nuclear agreement with Iran, thereby allowing the latter to return to the oil market,” Commerzbank said in a note.
On the earnings front, investors digested mostly positive quarterly results from retailers, with Macy’s in the spotlight.
Macy’s (NYSE:M) jumped more than 3% after reporting better-than-expected second-quarter results, though a slowing economy forced the retailer to trim its full-year guidance.
Dick’s Sporting Goods (NYSE:DKS) ended slightly higher after the retailer lifted its full-year outlook and reported second-quarter results that beat on both the top and bottom lines.
In other news, Warner Bros Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD) closed up nearly 1% after its subsidiary HBO's launch of House of the Dragon, the prequel to Game of Thrones, racked up nearly 10 million views on its debut.