FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., August 5, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
August 6, 2019
By Medha Singh
(Reuters) – Wall Street was set to bounce back on Tuesday, as China stepped in to steady the yuan and investors sought beaten-down technology stocks, a day after Wall Street’s main indexes racked up their steepest one-day percentage fall of the year.
The benchmark S&P 500 <.SPX> and Nasdaq <.IXIC> lost at least 3% each on Monday, their sixth straight day of losses, as China let the yuan drop sharply in what was seen as a retaliation to President Donald Trump’s threat to slap a new round of tariffs on Chinese imports last week.
Fears of an escalating trade war were fanned further after U.S. Treasury Department labeled Beijing a currency manipulator late on Monday.
“The fact that China stabilized its currency gives investors some hope that this won’t accelerate into a bigger problem,” said Rick Meckler, partner at Cherry Lane Investments, a family investment office in New Vernon, New Jersey.
“Any positive response by either side that suggests some willingness to negotiate is really going to be taken well by investors.”
At 8:28 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis <1YMcv1> were up 218 points, or 0.85%. S&P 500 e-minis <EScv1> were up 24.25 points, or 0.86% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis <NQcv1> were up 75.75 points, or 1.03%.
Of the 30 Dow Jones Industrial components <.DJI>, 29 were trading higher before the bell.
Shares of technology companies, which have a big exposure to China, were also higher.
Apple Inc <AAPL.O> rose 1.0% after three days of heavy losses, while shares of semiconductor companies – Intel Corp <INTC.O>, Advanced Micro Devices Inc <AMD.O> and Nvidia Corp <NVDA.O> – rose between 1.1% and 2%.
Industrial bellwethers Boeing Co <BA.N> and Caterpillar Inc <CAT.N> rose about 0.6% each.
Among other stocks, videogame publisher Take-Two Interactive Software Inc <TTWO.O> jumped 7.1% after raising its full-year revenue forecast.
Payments processor Mastercard Inc <MA.N> gained 1.7% after it said it would buy a majority of the corporate services businesses of European payments company Nets for about $3.19 billion.
Walt Disney Co <DIS.N> was up 1.3%. The company is set to report its third-quarter results after market close.
The latest streak of losses has pulled the S&P 500 about 6% away from its all-time high hit last month.
(Reporting by Medha Singh and Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)
