NEW YORK: Resurgent technology shares were a standout on Wall Street Wednesday, but global equity markets were generally under pressure due to jitters over North Korea's latest saber-rattling.
Big tech names, including Amazon, Google parent Alphabet and Microsoft, all climbed more than one percent as investors again stepped in to take advantage of intermittent weakness in the sector.
Those gains helped the tech-rich Nasdaq gain 0.7 percent. But the Dow in the US finished slightly lower, while equity markets in London, Frankfurt and Paris all mustered only small gains.
Worries about North Korea weighed on investors. At the United Nations, the US led a push for tougher sanctions on North Korea after its watershed test of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
US Ambassador Nikki Haley said Washington was working on a draft resolution imposing sanctions on Kim Jong-Un's regime, calling the ICBM launch a "sharp military escalation" that made "the world a more dangerous place."
Investors "are not ignoring the bout of risk aversion triggered by North Korea's ongoing missile tests," said analyst Naeem Aslam at trading firm Think Markets.
"The geopolitical tensions remain a major threat for the global stability and economic health and traders would not ignore this fact."
Meeting minutes released by the Federal Reserve showed disagreement among policy makers on the timing of interest rate hikes into next year and the timeframe for winding down the Fed's multi-trillion-dollar investment holdings.
Despite the debate, "the minutes were largely consistent with the Fed starting the phase out period of its balance sheet by September and another rate hike by December, a dollar-constructive outlook," said Joe Manimbo, senior market analyst at Western Union Business Solutions.
Oil prices fell sharply on new questions about OPEC's commitment to keeping production down after Bloomberg reported resistance in Russia to deepening an agreement to cut production. Analysts also cited reports of higher OPEC exports.
US oil prices ended down more than four percent at $45.13 a barrel. That prompted declines of more than 1.5 percent in petroleum producers such as ExxonMobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips.
Tesla Motors slumped 7.2 percent after Goldman Sachs slashed its price target on the carmaker due to expectations for lower car deliveries.
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