US open: Wall Street recovers after initial dip
Wall Street has started the session slightly lower but was quickly recovering, following a threat from North Korea's top diplomatic official.
At 1442 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was dipping 0.04% or 9.19 points to trade at 22,350.05, with the S&P 500 off by 0.04% or 1.10 points to 2,499.48 alongside it and the Nasdaq Composite declining by 0.08% or 5.60 points to 6,416.66.
From a sector standpoint, the best performing areas of the market were: Mobile telecommunications (2.07%), Electronic office equipment (1.39%) and Business support services (0.88%).
Speaking at a United Nations meeting in New York late on Thursday, North Korea's foreign minister Ri Yong Ho said the country could consider a nuclear test of "unprecedented scale".
Meanwhile, in a statement reported by North Korea's official news agency, Kim Jong Un said US President Donald Trump is "deranged" and will "pay dearly" for his threats. He added that his country would consider "the hardest level of hardline countermeasure in history" against the US.
His comments came after Trump delivered a speech at the United Nations earlier in the week in which he pledged to destroy North Korea if the US was attacked.
Acting as a backdrop, markets were also keeping a close eye on several Fed speakers. Speaking earlier in the day from the Swiss National Bank, San Francisco Fed chief John Williams reportedly held out the possibility of an interest rate hike as soon as in December.
However, he also indicated that in his view the "new normal" for the Fed funds rate - the US central bank's main policy rate - was around 2.5%.
Alongside those remarks, the yield on the benchmark two-year US Treasury was one basis point lower to 1.43%, but off an overnight low of 1.42%.
In parallel, IHS Markit reported a modest drop in its composite purchasing managers' index for the US manufacturing and services sector from 55.3 in August to 54.6.
Nonetheless, the survey compiler labelled the economy's performance "resilient" given the disruptions from various hurricanes.
Still on the macroeconomic calendar for later in the day, Kansas City President Esther George was set to deliver a keynote speech at an oil conference in Oklahoma with Dallas Fed chief Robert Kaplan also scheduled to take part in a Q&A at the same event.
Weekly US oil rig count figures were also still ahead, at 1900 BST.
On the corporate front, shares in biopharmaceutical group Versartis tumbled after it said late on Thursday that its drug somavaratan did not meet its primary endpoint in a phase 3 trial.
Elsewhere, Phillips 66 Partners said it had reached an agreement to buy assets from Phillips 66 in a transaction worth $2.4bn.
CarMax stock was a top riser after the used car retailer posted second quarter earnings and sales of 98 cents per share and $4.39bn, respectively.
Sprint and T Mobile shares were both wanted on the heels of a Reuters report that the two firms were now nearer to agreeing on a tie-up.
Dow Jones - Risers
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $49.38 0.89%
Boeing Co. (BA) $258.14 0.82%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $32.87 0.52%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $45.56 0.35%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $116.81 0.29%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $92.89 0.27%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $159.59 0.25%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $125.04 0.20%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $132.01 0.20%
General Electric Co. (GE) $24.79 0.18%
Dow Jones - Fallers
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $151.09 -1.50%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $193.30 -0.98%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $230.08 -0.52%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $37.08 -0.31%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $65.46 -0.21%
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $98.71 -0.19%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $53.11 -0.15%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $94.89 -0.15%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $74.13 -0.11%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $121.36 -0.11%
S&P 500 - Risers
Carmax Inc. (KMX) $72.63 5.51%
Equifax Inc. (EFX) $102.71 4.53%
Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. (DO) $13.37 2.14%
Transocean Ltd. (RIG) $9.27 2.09%
L Brands Inc (LB) $37.61 1.98%
O'Reilly Automotive Inc. (ORLY) $205.79 1.75%
Paychex Inc. (PAYX) $59.16 1.67%
Iron Mountain Inc (New) (IRM) $40.43 1.66%
First Solar Inc. (FSLR) $49.55 1.62%
Allergan plc (AGN) $205.83 1.56%
S&P 500 - Fallers
United States Steel Corp. (X) $23.32 -5.43%
Tiffany & Co. (TIF) $86.89 -3.29%
Mohawk Inds Inc. (MHK) $246.27 -3.09%
International Paper Co. (IP) $55.54 -3.05%
Alcoa Corporation (AA) $44.85 -3.03%
Westrock Company (WRK) $55.90 -2.97%
Mattel Inc. (MAT) $14.65 -2.30%
Endo International Plc (ENDP) $8.61 -2.17%
Centene Corp. (CNC) $89.10 -1.81%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $151.09 -1.50%
Nasdaq 100 - Risers
O'Reilly Automotive Inc. (ORLY) $205.79 1.75%
Paychex Inc. (PAYX) $59.16 1.67%
T-Mobile Us, Inc. (TMUS) $64.31 1.44%
Expedia Inc. (EXPE) $145.03 1.33%
Liberty Interactive Corporation QVC Group (QVCA) $23.42 1.28%
Texas Instruments Inc (TXN) $87.10 1.22%
American Airlines Group (AAL) $46.84 1.19%
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) $119.29 1.07%
Lam Research Corp. (LRCX) $173.90 0.94%
Viacom Inc. Class B (VIAB) $27.63 0.84%
Nasdaq 100 - Fallers
Mattel Inc. (MAT) $14.65 -2.30%
Incyte Corp. (INCY) $113.01 -1.77%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $151.09 -1.50%
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (REGN) $427.23 -1.44%
NetEase Inc. Ads (NTES) $273.65 -1.43%
JD.com, Inc. (JD) $42.37 -1.42%
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VRTX) $150.81 -0.82%
Ctrip.Com International Ltd. Ads (CTRP) $52.99 -0.81%
Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ALXN) $142.02 -0.63%
Celgene Corp. (CELG) $143.01 -0.54%