Stock market today: Wall Street slips again ahead of Powell testimony
NEW YORK –
Wall Street is retreating a bit extra as a five-week rally loses momentum.
The S&P 500 was 0.4% decrease in early buying and selling Wednesday. It’s on tempo for a 3rd straight pullback after rallying final week to its highest stage in additional than a 12 months.
The Dow fell 152 factors, or 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite was off 0.3%. The important occasion for the day is prone to be testimony on Capitol Hill from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
The Fed has been a key focus for markets because it tries to get the worst inflation in generations below management.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows under.
U.S. markets are largely unmoved early Wednesday forward of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s look earlier than Congress, the place he is anticipated to area questions concerning the central financial institution’s inflation-fighting rate of interest insurance policies.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 every ticked down about 0.1% earlier than the opening bell Wednesday. Oil costs are flat.
Markets are involved the Fed will return to elevating charges subsequent month and will must hold them larger for longer, which might strain the economic system and doubtlessly carry on a recession.
Powell will testify earlier than a committee within the House on Wednesday and one other within the Senate on Thursday. Last week, the Fed opted to go away its benchmark lending price alone, the primary time in additional than a 12 months that it did not announce a rise. But it additionally warned it may elevate charges twice extra this 12 months.
“Investors are turning cautious ahead of another hefty dose of Fedspeak amidst a relatively light data docket,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management stated in a commentary.
He added that “with central banks in the mood to dish out inflation pain these days, investors may need to see some positive inflation data convergence to narrow the wide disparity between the Federal Reserve and the market’s forward inflation expectations before breaking fresh higher ground on U.S. stocks.”
Markets have been buoyed by hypothesis that inflation is easing sufficient for the Fed to cease elevating rates of interest quickly. A frenzy round synthetic intelligence has additionally vaulted a choose group of tech shares to large beneficial properties.
FedEx slipped greater than 2% earlier than the bell Wednesday after the bundle supply big beat fourth-quarter revenue targets however issued steering for fiscal 2024 that got here in decrease than Wall Street hoped for. UPS adopted it down, dropping about 1%.
Elsewhere, the Bank of England will meet on interest-rate coverage Thursday. Central banks around the globe are heading in diverging instructions as they battle inflation amid worries a few pressured international economic system.
At noon in Europe, Germany’s DAX, the CAC 40 in Paris and Britain’s FTSE 100 had been all down about 0.2%.
Wednesday in Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 superior 0.3% to 33,575.14, whereas the Hang Seng in Hong Kong sank 2% to 19,218.35. The Shanghai Composite index gave up 1.3% to three,197.90 and the Kospi in Seoul slipped 0.9% to 2,582.63.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.6% to 7,314.90. Bangkok’s SET misplaced 1.1%, whereas India’s Sensex was up 0.3%.
In different buying and selling Wednesday, oil costs had been off Tuesday’s shut by a few cents. U.S. benchmark crude oil was $71.21 per barrel in digital buying and selling on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It gave up 74 cents to $71.19 per barrel on Tuesday.
Brent crude, the worldwide customary, was $75.88 per barrel.
The greenback rose to 141.76 Japanese yen from 141.43 yen. The euro was buying and selling at $1.0924, up barely from $1.0922.
On Tuesday, the U.S. inventory market took a step again after rising on hopes the economic system can keep away from a recession. The S&P 500 fell 0.5%, whereas the Dow misplaced 0.7% and the Nasdaq composite gave again 0.2%.
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Kurtenbach reported from Bangkok; Ott reported from Silver Spring, Md.
