Wall Street edged lower early today, the Associated Press reports, after big U.S. companies delivered mixed profit reports, and Treasury yields added pressure to stocks. Futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow industrials inched back 0.1% before the bell.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury surged to 4.97% early this morning after topping 4.90% Wednesday for the first time since 2007, just before the global financial crisis.
Earnings season continues with some big names posting mixed quarterly results.
American Airlines rose 1.2% in the premarket after it reported a $545 million loss for the third quarter, in contrast with the huge profits posted by its two closest rivals.
AT&T shares jumped 4.7% after the telecom beat Wall Street’s third-quarter expectations and raised its guidance for the year.
Tesla’s share price fell 7.2% in after-hours trading after it reported Wednesday that its net income slumped in the third quarter, as price reductions helped drive strong sales growth but ate into the automaker’s profit margins.
Shares in Netflix jumped 13.5% after it disclosed summertime subscriber gains that surpassed analysts’ projections.
Worries about war in the Middle East are also dragging on markets. A big threat for the global economy is what oil prices will do to inflation. Crude prices jumped sharply on Wednesday following a deadly explosion at a hospital in the Gaza Strip, which sparked protests across the Middle East.
Early Thursday, U.S. benchmark crude oil fell 72 cents at $86.55 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international pricing standard, fell 92 cents to $90.58 per barrel.
In other trading early today, the dollar fell to 149.84 Japanese yen from 149.93 yen.
