By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com –The Dow fell sharply Friday led by an Intel-infused stumble in tech and renewed concerns about stimulus on signs that progress on talks have stalled.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.33%, or 92 points. The S&P 500 was up 0.01 %, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.11%.
Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) slumped more than 10% 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, which was also kept in the red by mixed trading in the Fab 5.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) traded in the red, while Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) were above the flatline.
And then there's that stimulus talk that weighed on sentiment, with no signs of progress 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 more than 5% after Goldman initiated coverage on the stock at neutral.