Opposition to a sizable pandemic aid package hardened in the Republican-controlled US Senate. Shares of Apple (-2.6%), Amazon (-2%), Alphabet (-2.4%), Facebook (-1.7%) and Microsoft (-2.5%) all dragged on indexes. Oilfield services provider Halliburton (-0.7%) posted a fourth consecutive quarterly loss.
ConocoPhillips shares slipped 3.2% as it agreed to buy shale oil producer Concho Resources (-2.8%) for US$9.7 billion. Intel (+0.8%) was reported to be nearing a deal to sell its NAND unit to South Korea’s SK Hynix for around US$10 billion. The Dow Jones index fell by 410 points or 1.4% after being down 463 points at session lows. The S&P500 index lost 1.6% and the Nasdaq index was down by 192 points or 1.7%.
