On Wall Street in the United States, the three major indexes opened mixed on the 4th local time. Analysts said the move reflected weakness in tech stocks and softer private hiring.
As of 9:49 a.m., the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 365.49 points, or 0.74%, at 49,606.48 from the previous session.
At the same time, the large-cap Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 was up 18.28 points, or 0.26%, at 6,936.09 from the day before. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite was down 24.43 points, or 0.11%, at 23,230.75 from the previous session.
Tech stocks were weaker for a second straight day. AMD, which released earnings after the close the previous day, posted a record quarterly revenue of $10.27 billion (about 14.97 trillion won) in the fourth quarter of last year, but missed market expectations, sending its shares down more than 15%.
Alphabet is scheduled to report earnings after the close today.
Weak private hiring also weighed on sentiment. According to the Automatic Data Processing (ADP) National Employment Report, private payrolls in January rose by 22,000 from the previous month. That was less than half of the market expectation for a 48,000 increase.
The U.S. services purchasing managers index (PMI) for January, released today, topped expectations. According to S&P Global, the January U.S. services PMI came in at 52.7, above the consensus of 52.5.
By sector, technology and communications were weak, while consumer staples and energy gained.
Eli Lilly, a major pharmaceutical company, delivered an earnings surprise in the fourth quarter of last year as demand surged for the obesity drugs zepbound and Mounjaro, and its shares rose nearly 8%. Chip design firm Silicon Laboratories jumped more than 49% on news that Texas Instruments would acquire it for $7.5 billion (about 10.93 trillion won).
European stocks were also mixed. The Euro Stoxx 50 was up 0.27% at 6,011.37 from the previous day and the U.K. FTSE 100 and France's CAC 40 rose 1.50% and 1.23%, respectively. Germany's DAX fell 0.45% from the previous session.
Crude prices were also higher. As of 10:22 a.m., West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for March 2026 delivery, the front-month contract, was up 0.33% from the prior settlement at $63.42 per barrel.