Wall Street opened in red this Wednesday with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 0.64%, down to 42,650 points, driven by the drop in McDonald's shares and the rise in the 10-year Treasury bond yield.
Fifteen minutes after the opening, the S&P 500 index was down 0.36%, standing at 5,829 points, while the Nasdaq fell 0.54%, reaching 18,473 units.
McDonald's experienced a 6% drop due to an E. coli outbreak associated with its Quarter Pounder hamburgers, which has affected 49 people, leaving one dead and ten hospitalized. Meanwhile, Boeing shares decreased by 1% after reporting a loss of $7.968 billion in the first nine months of the year.
Coca-Cola also suffered a 2.4% drop after reporting a 3% decline in its year-on-year earnings from January to September. The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond rose to 4.238%, its highest level since late July.
Traders are concerned about the possibility of a deficit in the economy and the Federal Reserve's (Fed) reluctance to make another rate cut. A half-point cut was expected before the end of the year.
As for the sectors, the largest losses were concentrated in consumer discretionary (-0.86%) and technology (-0.56%), while the utility and real estate sectors recorded gains (0.62% and 0.29%, respectively).
Among the 30 major companies in the Dow, the gains of Verizon (0.83%) and Merck (0.57%) were notable, as well as the drops of McDonald's (-6.31%) and Coca-Cola (-2.45%).
