U.S. stocks rose in early trading Wednesday, with the major indexes boosted by tech stocks after Google was spared the worst in its landmark search monopoly case.
The S&P 500 opened 0.3% higher on Wednesday, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.7%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.1%. Stocks slumped yesterday after a judge late last Friday ruled President Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs on most U.S. trading partners were illegal, injecting fresh uncertainty into the trade outlook.
Investors are anxiously awaiting major labor market data this week, with the main event coming on Friday with the release of the August jobs report. July’s data showed the U.S. added far fewer jobs in the spring than previously thought. The Federal Reserve will be watching the data closely as policymakers weigh whether to cut interest rates at their next meeting in two weeks. The majority of market participants expect the Fed to make its first rate cut of the year later this month.
Shares of Google parent Alphabet (GOOG) soared 6% Wednesday after a federal judge spared it from selling its Chrome browser as a remedy to last year’s landmark antitrust ruling against the search giant. The ruling allows Google to continue paying other companies for Chrome to be preloaded onto new devices, but bars it from inking exclusive deals. Shares of Apple (AAPL), which Google pays about $20 billion a year to be the default browser on iPhones, rose about 3%.
Other big tech stocks, which led last Friday’s selloff and remained under pressure yesterday, were mixed in early trading. Shares of Tesla (TSLA) were up 1%, while Amazon (AMZN), Meta Platforms (META), and Broadcom (AVGO) ticked higher. Shares of Nvidia (NVDA) and Microsoft (MSFT) were marginally lower.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which affects interest rates on a variety of consumer and commercial loans, inched up to 4.27% from 4.26% at yesterday’s close. The 30-year yield, which early Wednesday briefly topped 5% for the first time since July, was recently at 4.95%.
Gold climbed to a fresh record around $3,625/oz as investors turned to the traditional safe haven. West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. crude oil benchmark, dropped about 1.5% to $63.50 a barrel.
Bitcoin was up at $111,500 in recent trading, up from an overnight low of $110,600. The cryptocurrency has come under pressure in recent weeks after hitting a record high of more than $124,000 in early August.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the performance of the U.S. dollar against a basket of foreign currencies, ticked down about 0.1% to 98.30.