By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- U.S. stock markets opened lower on Thursday, with semiconductor names underperforming after one of the world's biggest chipmakers said an end to the current supply squeeze was on the horizon.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM) CEO CC Wei told analysts on a call that he expected chip deliveries to carmakers in particular to pick up sharply in the current quarter and over the rest of the year. The news was seen as spelling an end to the windfall that chipmakers have enjoyed in the first six months of 2021. Auto production fell 6.6% in June due to chip shortages, the Federal Reserve said in its monthly report on industrial production. That ensured that overall production growth fell short of expectations at only 0.4%.
TSM shares were among the biggest losers in early trading, falling 5.5%, but other chipmakers suffered too: NXP Semiconductors (NASDAQ:NXPI) stock fell 4.5%, Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) stock fell 1.9% and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) stock fell 1.3%.
By 9:45 AM ET (1345 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 102 points, or 0.3%, at 34,830 points. The S&P 500 was also down 0.3% and the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.4%
Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) stock gained a modest 0.8%, after making a hire that suggests it wants to add videogame streaming to its platform. Analysts expressed skepticism that the owners of the most popular video game franchises would be willing to allow it onto their turf. The stock nonetheless also got an upgrade from analysts at UBS, on the view that new subscriptions will start accelerating again.
Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) stock rose 0.3% despite not being able to escape the trend of a quarter that saw weak bond trading conditions hamper overall profitability on Wall Street. The 45% drop in income from trading fixed-income, currencies and commodities was at the weaker end of the peer group's range.
Biogen (NASDAQ:BIIB) stock also fell 3.8% after the New York Times reported that two major clinics - Mount Sinai and the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio - have refused to administer its Alzheimer's drug Aduhelm, adding to the controversy over its approval by the Food and Drug Administration. UnitedHealth (NYSE:UNH), the country's largest hospital operator, said on a call that it still hadn't decided on a policy toward the drug. UnitedHealth stock fell 0.6% after its profit fell 36% in the second quarter, a consequence of its operating costs returning to normal levels after the widespread cancellation of elective procedures a year ago, in the first phase of the pandemic.
Earlier, the latest weekly jobless claims numbers indicated that the labor market recovery is grinding on, rather than roaring ahead. Initial jobless claims fell to 360,000 as expected, while the total number of people claiming some sort of dole fell under 14 million.