US stocks rebound as Hong Kong tensions ease
U.S. stocks rebounded Wednesday as tensions in Hong Kong cooled after Chief Executive Carrie Lam formally withdrew a proposed extradition bill that has sparked months of violent protests.
The bill would have allowed for Hong Kong citizens to be extradited to mainland China jurisdictions with which the city lacked a treaty, Macau and Taiwan.
All three of the major U.S. averages were up throughout the day's trading sesssion.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I:DJI | DOW JONES AVERAGES | 38029.9 | +254.52 | +0.67% |
| SP500 | S&P 500 | 4986.57 | -24.55 | -0.49% |
| I:COMP | NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX | 15380.514626 | -220.98 | -1.42% |
Starbucks was under pressure after warning profits would be weaker than forecast due to an accelerated share buyback program. Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Global Retailer Conference on Wednesday, Starbucks CFO Patrick Grismer said the company decided to bring about $2 billion worth of share purchases from fiscal 2020 to fiscal 2019 because of the big gains Starbucks shares have seen this year. The stock had gained 50 percent year-to-date through Tuesday.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SBUX | STARBUCKS CORP. | 87.11 | +0.90 | +1.04% |
| TPR | TAPESTRY INC. | 40.50 | +0.01 | +0.02% |
Elsewhere, Tapestry, the owner of Coach, Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman, was higher after naming Chairman of the Board Jide Zeitlin as CEO. He replaces Victor Luis, who spent 13 years at the helm of the company.
On the commodities front, gold and West Texas Intermediate crude oil were higher.
U.S. Treasurys were modestly lower, with the 10-year yield up 1.8 basis points near 1.48 percent.
Wednesday's bounce-back comes after the Dow fell by as much as 425 points on Tuesday after the Institute for Supply Management said its manufacturing index last month slid to a 3½-year low of 49.1. A reading under 50 indicates contraction.
In Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng surged 3.9 percent while China's Shanghai Composite closed up 0.9 percent and Japan's Nikkei finished up 0.1 percent.
The news from Hong Kong gave a boost to European stocks, with all of the region's major averages trading higher.
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In London, Prime Minister Boris Johnson suffered a setback when Parliament agreed to allow his opponents to introduce legislation that would block Britain from leaving the EU without an agreement on terms of their future trade and other relations. Britain is due to withdraw Oct. 31, a deadline the trade bloc's other members would have to agree to postpone.
FOX Business' Ken Martin contributed to this article.