Stocks have moved mostly lower over the course of morning trading on Wednesday, giving back ground after ending the previous session notably higher. The major averages have all moved to the downside on the day.
Currently, the major averages are all in the red, although the Dow is down just 20.42 points or 0.1 percent at 27,267.76. The tech-heavy Nasdaq is down 79.07 points or 0.7 percent at 10,884.57 and the S&P 500 is down 8.78 points or 0.3 percent at 3,306.79.
The pullback on Wall Street is partly due to renewed weakness among technology stocks, with big-name companies like Netflix (NFLX), Amazon (AMZN) and Alphabet (GOOGL) posting notable losses.
Selling pressure has remained somewhat subdued, however, as traders react to comments from President Donald Trump indicating the U.S. would not follow the U.K.'s lead and implement a second round of lockdowns.
"The U.K. just shut down again. They just announced that they're going to do a shutdown, and we're not going to be doing that," Trump told Fox 2 Detroit on Tuesday. "We understand the disease, we understand how to handle it."
In other coronavirus-related news, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) announced it has begun a phase 3 trial of its coronavirus vaccine candidate.
Gold stocks have moved sharply lower in morning trading, dragging the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index down by 4.3 percent to its lowest intraday level in two months.
The sell-off by gold stocks comes amid a steep drop by the price of the precious metal, with gold for December delivery plunging $38.40 to $1,869.20 an ounce.
Significant weakness is also visible among oil service stocks, as reflected by the 2.1 percent slump by the Philadelphia Oil Service Index. The weakness in the sector comes despite an increase by the price of crude oil.
On the other hand, computer hardware stocks are seeing considerable strength on the day, driving the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index up by 1.3 percent.
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher during trading on Wednesday, although Japan's Nikkei 225 Index bucked the uptrend and edged down by 0.1 percent. China's Shanghai Composite Index rose by 0.2 percent, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index spiked by 2.4 percent.
The major European markets have also moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index has surged up by 1.6 percent, the French CAC 40 Index is up by 1 percent and the German DAX Index is up by 0.9 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries have moved lower after ending the previous session little changed. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 2.3 basis points at 0.687 percent.
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