By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com – The Dow ended roughly flat, pressured by a fall in financials and u-turn in Apple after the tech giant launched a new services bundle and hardware.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended flat or 1 point higher. The S&P 500 was up 0.49%, while the Nasdaq Composite added 1.21%.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) unveiled Tuesday a slate of new hardware including a new iPad and Apple Watch and launched its much-rumored services bundle, Apple One, starting at $14.95 per month. Apple rose 0.2%, but had been up more than 1% in early trade.
The bundle will be launched in three tiers: individual, family, and premier offering. Each will include services such as Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, iCloud storage, the company said. Apple News+ and Apple Fitness+, however, are included with the more expensive premium subscription at $29.95 a month, the company said.
The virtual product event comes ahead of the widely anticipated launch of the iPhone 12, expected next month, which many on Wall Street believe will trigger a ramp-up in iPhone upgrades.
Other big tech stocks, however, managed to hold gains, with Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) trading above the flatline.
Financials fell more than 1%, led by a fall in Wall Street banks ahead of the Fed's two-day meeting, which kicks off today. The Fed on Wednesday is expected to keep rates unchanged, and will likely reiterate its support to keep rates lower for longer.
JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) fell 3% after lowering guidance on net interest income in the wake of falling interest rates.
Energy added to the broader market weakness even as oil prices shrugged off concern about weaker demand to end the day up nearly 3%.
The International Energy Agency said it expects global oil demand growth to fall by 8.4 million barrels per day year-on-year to 91.7 million bpd. That is a deeper contraction than the 8.1 million bpd decline previously estimated.
On the economic front, investors digested positive regional market data as a sign that the economic recovery remains intact despite dimming hopes of further stimulus from Congress.
The Empire State Manufacturing index rose to a reading of 17 in September, from 3.7 last month, topping economists’ estimates of 7.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told CNBC in an interview on Tuesday that she would not back the Republican’s “skinny” version of her party’s coronavirus stimulus plan.
In other news, Nikola (NASDAQ:NKLA) fell 8% giving back gains from a day earlier after the electric pickup maker reportedly came under investigation from the Securities and Exchange Commission following allegations of fraud from short-seller Hindenburg, Bloomberg reported.