US stock markets cautious ahead of mid-term elections; Dow Jones drops 200 pts, S&P 500 and NASDAQ rally

The US stock markets opened mixed on Tuesday ahead of the mid-term elections. The Dow Jones fell 250 points at the open, while the S&P 500 and NASDAQ 100 opened in the green with gains of up to 0.5%.

Amid the cautiousness ahead of the mid-term election results, US bond yields also bounced back from one-month lows. The US 10Y bond yield surged over 5% in the intraday session and traded near 4.93% in the opening hours of the US markets.

However, crude oil prices extended their fall on Tuesday after reports indicated that the US and Iran are working towards a peaceful resolution to the conflict. However, volatility persists after the US conducted limited strikes on Iran near the Strait of Hormuz. Investors and oil market participants await the results of the US mid-term elections. Multiple media reports earlier indicated that the US would launch a fresh military offensive against Iran soon after the US mid-term elections.

Currently, Brent crude oil prices trade near $103 per barrel, after hitting an intraday low of $101 per barrel, while WTI crude oil prices fell to an intraday low of $93.5 per barrel, extending Monday’s sharp fall.

At the stock-specific level, shares of Apple Inc. opened nearly 3% lower, but recouped partial losses to trade 1.5% lower at $332 per share after the company announced its Q4 earnings on Monday after market hours. The iPhone maker’s revenue jumped 12% YoY to $114.4 billion, and the EPS surged 14% YoY to $2.1 per share. Besides this, the company announced a deal with Google to use its AI technology, Gemini, to power its intelligence platform, Siri, and Apple Intelligence.

Apple continued to post stellar sales in China and India. Apple posted record sales in China, helping it to offset the surge in costs associated with memory chips and other key component costs.

Meanwhile, shares of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) gained over 4% on Tuesday ahead of its quarterly earnings release after market closing hours. Investors will closely monitor the data centre revenue and outlook on PC demand guidance, after Intel lowered its guidance in the previous week.