Investing.com – Wall Street was flat on Wednesday as North Korea threatened to withdraw from a meeting with the U.S. and rising Treasury yields weighed on investors minds.
The S&P 500 was up over three points or 0.14% to 2,715.12 as of 9:38 AM ET (13:38 GMT) while the Dow composite increased over six points or 0.03% to 24,734.27 and tech heavy NASDAQ Composite rose 11 points or 0.16% to 7,363.25.
North Korea threatened to withdraw from a June 12 meeting in Singapore in response to joint U.S. -South Korea military drills on Wednesday.
“If they try to corner us and pressure us unilaterally to give up nuclear weapons, we will no longer be interested in such dialogue. We will have to reconsider whether to participate in the upcoming North Korea-US talks,” said Kim Kye Gwan, vice-minister of foreign affairs.
The news brings into question North Korea’s promise to denuclearize. North Korea leader Kim Jong Un was set to meet U.S. President Donald Trump to discuss the country abandoning its nuclear weapons program.
Meanwhile a rise in Treasury yields has also weighed on investors, with the benchmark United States 10-Year yield dipping 0.25% to 3.072 after reaching a seven-year high of 3.095 on Tuesday.
Department store Macy’s Inc (NYSE:M) was among the biggest gainers after the morning bell, as it surged 7.03% after reporting higher than expected earnings. Meanwhile Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU) rose 3.50%, while Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) gained 0.22% and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) increased 2.34%
Elsewhere Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) dipped 0.57% while Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) was down 0.35% and Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) lost 0.31%.
In Europe stocks were mixed. Germany’s DAX rose 37 points or 0.29% while in France the CAC 40 increased eight points or 0.16% and in London, the FTSE 100 was up ten points or 0.13%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 fell three points or 0.09% while Spain’s IBEX 35 slumped 104 points or 1.02%.
In commodities, gold futures inched down 0.01% to $1,290.20 a troy ounce while crude oil futures decreased 0.63% to $70.86 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rose 0.15% to 93.28.