A Facebook-led rebound in technology stocks in early afternoon on Wednesday helped Wall Street pare losses that were sparked by concerns about a US-Russia conflict over Syria. Earlier in the day, US President Donald Trump warned Russia of imminent military action in Syria, declaring missiles "will be coming". "It feels like there are expectations that the US is going to take some action against Syria. The market, I don't believe, has priced one yet," said Phil Blancato, Chief Executive of Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management in New York.
The rising tensions sent oil prices surging, boosting energy stocks 1 percent higher. But the risk-off sentiment weighed on treasury yields, pushing financial stocks down 0.82 percent. Facebook's shares were up 1.1 percent. They were down about 0.5 percent when Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg started his second day of testimony, but they flipped course as he pushed back on Congress members' suggestions that users do not have enough control of their data.
Facebook's gains helped the technology sector cut losses to a marginal 0.09 percent and briefly pushed the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 into positive territory. At 12:53 pm ET, the S&P 500 fell 6.32 points, or 0.24 percent, at 2,650.55 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.31 points, flat percent-wise, at 7,094. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 139.87 points, or 0.57 percent, at 24,268.13.
The index was weighed down by financials and industrial stocks, which are still reeling from the impact of the uncertainty on tariffs between the United States and China. Among stocks, Netflix gained 3.3 percent after Goldman Sachs became the latest brokerage to predict the streaming company would top expectations when it reports results on Monday.