Dow, S&P 500 end up slightly after trade talk news; Apple slips

NEW YORK — The Dow and S&P 500 ended slightly higher on Wednesday after news of a fresh round of US-China trade talks, while the Nasdaq fell following a decline in Apple as it unveiled larger iPhones but made just minor changes to its offerings.

The Trump administration has reached out to China for a new round of trade talks as it prepares to activate punitive US tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Trade-sensitive stocks rose, including Boeing, up 2.4%.

Apple shares were down 1.2%. The company also unveiled health-oriented watches based on the design of current models.

“Looks like the Street is yawning at Apple’s new iWatch, iOS12 and iPhone offerings,” said Daniel Morgan, vice-president and senior portfolio manager at Synovus Trust Co. in Atlanta.

“This adds to the concerns on tariffs, social media testimony and chips to make it a tough day for tech.”

TECHNOLOGY WOES

The S&P technology index was down 0.5%, reversing Tuesday’s gains, with fears of further deregulation also hurting Apple as well as social media names.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 27.86 points or 0.11% to 25,998.92; the S&P 500 gained 1.03 points or 0.04% to 2,888.92; and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 18.25 points or 0.23% to 7,954.23.

Six major Web and Internet service companies, including Apple, are to detail their consumer data privacy practices to a US Senate panel on Sept. 26, raising the specter of the possibility of stricter regulation.

Among the six companies to testify later this month, Twitter shares were down 3.7%, while Alphabet was down 1.5%.

Facebook, not among the companies to testify, was down 2.4%.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor index was down 1.2% after Goldman Sachs became the latest brokerage to warn of lower prices for memory chips due to an oversupply of DRAM and NAND chips. Micron slid 4.3%, while Applied Materials was down 2%.

Financial shares lost ground with 10-year bond yields. The S&P financial index was down 0.9%.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.35-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.12-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 31 new 52-week highs and 6 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 81 new highs and 89 new lows.

About 7.1 billion shares changed hands on US exchanges. That compares with the 6.2 billion daily average for the past 20 trading days, according to Thomson Reuters data. —