Wall Street mixed, US rate bets firm

Wall Street was mixed, while US Treasuries slid, as the latest economic data cemented bets the Federal Reserve will raise its key interest rate in December.

Yields on the 10-year Treasury note rose six basis points to 1.86 per cent in afternoon trading in New York.

"People are starting to look at interest rates and where they are, and they are getting a little nervous," Charles Comiskey, head of Treasury trading in New York at Bank of Nova Scotia, one of 23 primary dealers that trade with the Fed, told Bloomberg.

"What you are seeing is what you haven't seen in some time -- lower pricing is attracting selling."

Wall Street was mixed. In 2.24pm trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1 per cent. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.3 per cent. In 2.09pm trading, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index inched 0.03 per cent lower.

"This is a pretty important quarter because we are expecting an inflection to put that earnings recession in the rear-view mirror and we're going to have positive earnings growth," Michael Scanlon, managing director of Manulife Asset Management, told Reuters.

"Still it is not very robust."

In the Dow, gains in shares of DuPont and those of Verizon Communications, recently each trading 1.9 per cent higher, offset slides in shares of Boeing and those of Caterpillar, down 1.5 per cent and 1.3 per cent respectively.

Shares of Dow Chemical rose, trading 2.2 per cent higher as of 12.56pm in New York, after the chemicals and agriculture company reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings.

"We see steady growth in North America and Europe continuing, with Dow's new innovations and products outpacing the market," Dow's Andrew Liveris said in a statement.

Shares of Comcast slid, down 2.1 per cent as of 2.36pm, as analysts downgraded their ratings on the stock, citing increased competition.

Meanwhile, the flurry in big corporate deals continued unabated.

Qualcomm shares climbed, trading 4.7 per cent higher, after it said it agreed to buy NXP Semiconductors, the top supplier of automotive chips, in a deal valued at about US$47 billion.

"With innovation and invention at our core, Qualcomm has played a critical role in driving the evolution of the mobile industry," Steve Mollenkopf, CEO of Qualcomm, said in a statement.

"The NXP acquisition accelerates our strategy to extend our leading mobile technology into robust new opportunities, where we will be well positioned to lead by delivering integrated semiconductor solutions at scale," according to Mollenkopf.

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index finished the day by declining almost 0.1 per cent from the previous close. Germany's DAX Index added 0.1 per cent, while the UK's FTSE 100 Index rose 0.4 per cent. France's CAC 40 Index inched 0.02 per cent lower.