[New York Stocks] Mixed as Semiconductor Shares Gain Ahead of October FOMC Meeting

Oil Prices Fall as Middle East Tensions Ease

On Oct. 27 (local time), the three major U.S. stock indexes were mixed. Buying was concentrated in semiconductor-related stocks, while investors awaited the Federal Reserve's (Fed) October Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting.

As of 10:07 a.m. in New York, the Dow was trading at 52,280.80, down 80.76 points (0.15%) from the previous session. The large-cap S&P 500 was up 8.42 points (0.11%) at 7,685.19, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq was up 84.77 points (0.32%) at 26,254.15.

Semiconductor stocks stood out on the day. Investor sentiment was lifted by news that Bank of America, Citi, Morgan Stanley and Blackstone had arranged $63 billion in financing to procure Broadcom's AI accelerators and networking equipment to expand Anthropic's AI computing capacity. The equipment is set to be leased to Anthropic, with deliveries expected to begin in 2027.

Broadcom was up 3.71% from the previous session. Micron and AMD also posted notable gains, with AMD up 3.29% and SK hynix ADR up 1.54%.

Lower oil prices also supported market sentiment. As investors focused on the possibility of easing tensions in the Middle East, U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for December delivery fell 0.37% from the previous session to $101.38 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude on the ICE Futures Exchange was down 0.68% at $115.02 a barrel.

Among individual stocks, JetBlue surged 11% despite reporting a third-quarter loss that was larger than expected, after the company forecast further margin improvement in the fourth quarter. UPS edged higher after its third-quarter results beat market expectations, while Whirlpool fell more than 1% after reporting an unexpected quarterly loss.

Meanwhile, the Fed is holding a two-day FOMC meeting starting today. With a decision to leave interest rates unchanged widely expected, markets are watching for remarks that could indicate whether there will be another rate hike by year-end, as well as the vote tally.

Thomas Block, Washington policy strategist at Fundstrat, said that even if rates are held steady, the vote tally will draw attention because voting differed at the last two meetings. He said the Fed is keeping its distance from politics, but he sees little chance of a rate move a week before the midterm elections.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.