US stocks open in red as crude oil jumps 2%; NASDAQ 100 faces profit booking at record highs

The US stock markets opened in the red on Wednesday, amid profit booking at higher levels in the tech stocks. The NASDAQ 100 opened at fresh record-high levels, but pared all the gains to trade in 100 points in losses. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 also opened in red amid broader weak sentiment.

The global market cues remained mixed as the Asian markets closed in the red across the board, except for Korea. Similarly, the European markets fell on Wednesday across the board, losing as much as 1%.

The crude oil prices snapped the six-day correction as investors await the outcome of the diplomatic efforts between the US and Middle East countries. Brent crude oil prices hovered near $100 per barrel, while WTI crude oil prices jumped over 2% awaiting crude inventory data, scheduled to be released later today.

In addition, the US services composite PMI stood at 58.4 for September, strongly beating its previous month’s reading of 56 and the forecast of 52. The stronger PMI indicates strong expansion in economic activity. The manufacturing PMI also stood stronger at 56.7% vs 53.1 in the previous month, indicating strong manufacturing activity. Similarly, the services sector activity also expanded during the period, as the services PMI stood strong at 58.7 vs 56.5.

At the stock-specific level, the chip stocks led the fall on Wednesday as investors adopted profit booking in the chip stocks at higher levels. Shares of SanDisk Corporation (-2.3%), Micron Technology (-1.0%), Intel Corporation (-2.1%), and Seagate Technology holdings (-2.1%) were the top losers in the NASDAQ 100 index.

Among the megacap stocks, Microsoft Corporation (+1.2%) and Meta Platforms (+2.6%) were the top gainers, while Alphabet (-1.5%), Amazon (-1.5%) , and Apple Inc (-0.5%) were the top losers.