(Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange opened lower on Tuesday as investors feared a visit to Taiwan by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi could heighten tensions between the United States and China .
In early trade, the Dow Jones index lost -290.22 points, or -0.88%, to 32,508.18 points and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 fell -0.52% to 4,097 .29 points.
The Nasdaq Composite was down -0.25%, or -31.389 points, at 12,337.587.
Semiconductor manufacturers, heavily exposed to China, retreated at the start of the session. Qualcomm, Intel, Advanced Micro Devices, Micron Technology and Nvidia fell 0.5% to 1.4% at the opening.
“Chip stocks are really exposed to Asia. Some of them do 70% of their turnover, especially chip equipment companies, in this region, so it is an important issue for them. “, notes Jack DeGan, chief investment officer at Harbor Advisory.
Pinterest jumped 15.21% as activist investor Elliott Investment Management became the largest shareholder in the photo-sharing platform.
For its part, Caterpillar fell -4.74% after quarterly sales fell short of market expectations due to supply problems and the suspension of its operations in Russia.
(Written by Olivier Cherfan, edited by Jean-Stéphane Brosse)
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