After a favorable opening, the New York Stock Exchange plunged into the red on Wednesday, penalized by the downturn in the semiconductor sector, which overshadowed the slight decline in bond yields.

At the end of the morning, the Dow Jones fell by more than 0.1% to 37,745.4 points, while the Nasdaq Composite shed 0.4% to 15,805.9 points.745.4 points, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.4% to 15,805.9 points.

At the start of the session, the US equity markets had benefited from the precarious lull in bond market activity following the episode of tension that had weighed on the trend in recent days.

Rising bond yields and uncertainties over monetary policy had turned investors away from equities, a sell-off largely fueled by Jerome Powell's latest comments.

Yesterday, the Fed chairman seemed to rule out the prospect of a rate cut in June, suggesting that only two monetary easings would be on the agenda this year.

For the time being, the bond market is in a lull, with the yield on 10-year Treasuries retreating towards 4.62% this morning after having approached the 4.60% threshold yesterday, a peak of almost five months.

But the semiconductor segment, a major contributor to the recent rise in indices, is suffering this Wednesday after disappointing results from ASML, the Dutch chip industry equipment giant.

This weaker-than-expected performance weighed on the entire semiconductor sector, whose benchmark index, the Philadelphia SOX, lost 1.5%.

The S&P high-tech sub-index dropped more than 0.5%.

ASML shares fell by 7%, dragging Applied Materials (-3.2%), KLA-Tencor (-2.8%) and AMD (-1.1%) in its wake.

Among the companies releasing their results earlier in the day, Travelers was one of the biggest decliners on the S&P 500 index, a victim of profit-taking after a quarterly performance that was described as excellent.

United Airlines, on the other hand, posted one of the strongest gains in the benchmark index, after announcing reduced losses for the first quarter.

Oil prices continued to fall following the announcement of a rise in US crude oil inventories, with US light crude giving up 1.1% to $84.4.

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