The markets traded higher today as the semiconductor stocks recovered some of their recent declines. The Dow 30 was higher by 147 thanks mostly to Apple (AAPL ). The S&P 500 closed higher by 15 and the Nasdaq 100 added 59 on the day with the support of tech stocks. Comments that China was ready to talk about trade again sent stocks higher, but President Trump killed the rally by commenting that he is under no pressure to strike a deal.
Sector News
Oil lost some of yesterday's gains as investors turned their attention back to the trade wars and how they could affect demand. The International Energy Agency said that despite the tightening supply, "global economic risks were mounting." This comment alone pushed oil lower by over 2%. In other news, as the wind speeds of Hurricane Florence dropped upon landfall, investors are expecting that supply disruption will be less extensive than previously thought.
Semiconductors helped support the broad markets today as most of the chipmakers enjoyed a recovery from the recent selloff. Technical traders noted the quick push back above the 200-day moving average, which has been a non-indicator for some months on this sector.
Stock News
Qualcomm (QCOM ) announced a $16 billion accelerated share buyback program for a total of approximately 178 million shares. This comes in addition to a previous repurchase program of $30 billion. Shares were higher by 4% on the news, hitting new highs. This news helped support the semiconductors as a whole.
Equifax (EFX ) reports that it thinks Chinese spies were involved in an undisclosed incident involving the company. Equifax has declined to release further details at this time. It is unclear whether this incident is related to last year's massive data breach, in which the data of 150 million users was stolen. There has been no enforcement action of any kind against the company for this breach to date.
Tesla (TSLA ) remained in the news. CEO Elon Musk tweeted that customers could face longer response times in their request for model information due to a "significant increase in vehicle delivery volume." Many saw this as an attempt to hint to Wall Street that volume is better than expected.
Facebook (FB ) said it will now fact-check images and videos as well as text posts now. Given recent issues over privacy, bias, and political interference, the company says it will now let users flag photos, images, and videos for them to review for accuracy. Shares hovered near lows of the session.
