Wall Street witnessed a decline today, with the Dow Jones and Nasdaq indices both falling by 0.34%, and the more comprehensive S&P 500 index dropping by 0.40%.
“There is really no conviction in the market today,” stated Patrick O’Hare of Briefing.com to AFP.
“Everyone is a bit nervous, waiting to see what Mr. Powell will say tomorrow [Friday],” the analyst added.
The Federal Reserve Chair is scheduled to speak on Friday at 3:00 PM (Lisbon time) at the Jackson Hole conference in Wyoming, which gathers several central bankers.
Investors will be attentive for clues on the preferred monetary trajectory of the US institution.
The number of investors expecting an interest rate cut at the next Federal Reserve meeting in September slightly declined since Wednesday, according to the CME’s FedWatch monitoring tool, but it remains a majority.
“There might have been a slight question mark regarding the certainty of an interest rate cut,” especially after “certain statements from Fed officials,” recalled Patrick O’Hare.
The Cleveland Fed President, Beth Hammack, highlighted to Yahoo Finance the persistence of inflation in the United States, assuring that if the central bank’s monetary policy meeting “were held on Friday, [she] would see no reason to cut interest rates.”
In terms of indicators, the US private sector activity grew in August at its fastest pace since December, and sales of used residential properties in the United States recovered in July.
On the other hand, weekly unemployment benefit claims increased to 235,000, while analysts expected stabilization at 225,000.
These figures “suggest even greater weakening of the labor market,” according to Nancy Vanden Houten of Oxford Economics, who warns, however, that “seasonal factors may have influenced” this increase.
In the bond market, the yield on 10-year US government bonds rose to 4.33% around 9:10 PM (Lisbon time), compared to 4.30% at Wednesday’s close.
In the corporate sector, investors noted “a relative weakness in the shares of very large-cap companies,” particularly in the technology sector, according to O’Hare.
“Many of them had spectacular gains and are currently falling as investors take profits,” added the specialist.
Apple, for instance, fell by 0.49% to $224.90, Nvidia lost 0.24% to $174.98, and Meta (Facebook, Instagram) dropped 1.15% to $739.10.
The American aircraft manufacturer Boeing closed in the red (-0.51%, to $224.46). Shares had risen early in the session following media reports that the group was in negotiations with Chinese authorities over an order of up to 500 aircraft.
