Stocks waver on Wall Street as traders await stimulus news

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are wavering between small gains and losses in the early going on Wall Street Wednesday as traders wait to see if Washington can pull off a last-ditch attempt for more economic stimulus before the election. The S&P 500 was up less than 0.1% after the first few minutes of trading. Netflix fell after reporting a slump in subscriber growth over the summer late Tuesday, while Snap soared after its latest results came in better than anlaysts were expecting. Treasury yields moved higher and crude oil prices fell. European markets were broadly lower, while Asian markets ended mostly higher.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE: AP’s earlier story appears below.

Stock markets mostly edged lower on Wednesday after Asia closed higher as investors welcomed a batch of solid earnings reports and monitored the prospects for more U.S. economic aid.

U.S. shares appeared set to drift lower with Dow futures giving up 0.1% and S&P 500 futures declining 0.2%. France's CAC 40 fell 1% to 4,878 while Germany's DAX also shed 1% to 12,616.

Britain's FTSE 100 dropped 1.1% to 5,822 after new data showed government borrowing rose to the highest level on record in the first half of the financial year as tax revenue fell and authorities spent billions of pounds to prop up an economy ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 gained 0.3% to finish at 23,639.46. South Korea’s Kospi added 0.5% to 2,370.86, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged up 0.1% to 6,191.80. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 0.8% to 24,754.42. The Shanghai Composite slipped nearly 0.1% to 3,325.02.

Investors are nursing hopes that Democrats and Republicans will reach a deal to deliver more aid for the economy.

Negotiations on a huge COVID-19 relief bill took a modest step forward on Tuesday, though time is running out and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, President Donald Trump’s most powerful Senate ally, was pressing the White House not to move ahead.

The office of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said talks with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin were productive, but other veteran lawmakers said there is still too much work to do and not enough time to enact a relief bill by the Nov. 3 Election Day.

Regardless of staunch opposition to stimulus from Republican leaders, Jeffrey Halley of Oanda said, “the one lesson we can take is that the U.S. fiscal stimulus package remains the only thing financial markets are concentrating on, to the exclusion of everything else."

“As ever, the main risk is headline risk, either from stimulus negotiations or the Presidential Twitter account," Halley said.

Stocks have been mostly pushing higher this month after giving back some of their big gains this year in a sudden September swoon. The benchmark S&P 500 has notched a gain in each of the past three weeks.

The Big Tech stocks have been investor favorites this year, because the companies are expected to do well during and after the pandemic. The U.S. government antitrust action against Google this week has done little to hurt its shares.

Corporate earnings remain relatively upbeat, with wireless network company Ericsson doing better than expected and Tesla due to report later in the day.

In energy trading, U.S. benchmark crude fell 70 cents to $41 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Tuesday, it gained 63 cents to $41.70 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, lost 69 cents to $42.47 a barrel.

The dollar declined to 104.92 Japanese yen from 105.47 yen late Tuesday. The euro cost $1.1845, up from $1.1823.