Update: US Equity Indexes Mixed Amid Tech Gains, Midterm Elections Underway

04:54 PM EST, 11/03/2026 (MT Newswires) -- (Updates with index/price moves, macroeconomic data and company/geopolitical news from the first paragraph.) US equity indexes closed mixed Tuesday as technology topped the sector charts on midterm election day while government bond yields jumped. The Nasdaq jumped 0.8% to 25,372.01, and the S&P 500 climbed 0.4% to 7,568.92. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.4% to 51,786.72. All but four sectors fell, with decliners led by materials and consumer staples. Fourteen of the top 20 stocks with market capitalization exceeding $200 billion each were technology companies, according to data compiled by Finviz. US voters will decide control of the House and Senate on Tuesday. Democrats must flip four Senate seats and three House seats to wrestle control of the chambers from Republicans, the Associated Press reported. The stock market is not yet pricing in a Democratic sweep of Congress even though some polls and most prediction markets point that way, CNBC reported, citing investors and analysts. If that scenario plays out, it could weigh on share prices Wednesday, the news report said. Meanwhile, Iran and the US are reviewing the latest proposals from mediators on how to resolve their differences and avoid a return to all-out war, Bloomberg reported, citing a diplomat briefed on the matter. Qatari mediators flew to Tehran on Monday for more talks with Iranian officials, the diplomat told the news agency. The talks in the Iranian capital were positive, the diplomat said, adding that Qatar expects feedback within a couple of days, the news report said. Iran's top security chief Mohsen Rezaei said the United States must "fully and explicitly" address its conditions before the Strait of Hormuz is fully reopened, Al Jazeera reported. The front-month West Texas Intermediate crude oil contract rose 0.4% to $96.88 per barrel, while global benchmark Brent slid 0.3% to $104.48 per barrel. New orders for US factory goods rose 1.8% in September, versus expectations for a 1.2% gain in a Bloomberg-compiled survey and a revised 0.3% increase in August. Excluding a 4.6% jump in transportation orders, new orders would have risen 1.3% after a 0.4% gain in August. US job openings expanded to 7.523 million in September, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, above the 7.164 million expected in a Bloomberg-compiled survey, and up from the 7.190 million reported in August. The September print accounts for 4.5% of total employment, up from 4.3% in the previous month and a year earlier. Redbook US same-store sales surged more than 10% from a year ago in the week ended Oct. 31, after a 9.3% increase in the previous week. Most US Treasury yields rose, with the two-year up 5.2 basis points to 4.64%, the 10-year higher by 7.2 basis points to 4.97%, and the 30-year advancing 6.6 basis points to 5.34%. Gold futures fell 0.9% to $3,936.2, and silver futures dropped 2.1% to $49.84. Apple (AAPL) shares were among the Dow's worst performers after the iPhone maker issued a lower-than-expected margin outlook for fiscal Q1, taking the shine off market-beating fiscal Q4 earnings and sales. Apple's services business faces near-term pressure due to third-party licensing and foreign exchange headwinds, and rising memory costs are driving a soft fiscal Q1 margin outlook, Morgan Stanley said in a note Tuesday.