Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading on August 20, 2024.
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the Standard & Poor's 500 The U.S. dollar fell on Thursday as investors prepared for Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's speech at the central bank's annual Jackson Hole conference.
The general index fell by 0.89% to close at 5,570.64 points. Dow Jones Industrial Average The index ended today's trading down 177.71 points, or 0.43%, at 40,712.78 points. Nasdaq Composite The US stock market index fell 1.67% to close at 17,619.35 points, as technology stocks suffered the brunt of Thursday's declines.
Thursday marks a pullback after a largely positive period that was seen as a recovery following the global markets rout on Aug. 5. All three indexes had risen at one point in the session, with the S&P 500 approaching its all-time intraday high set in July before reversing course.
Stocks felt downward pressure from rising bond yields and a stumble in technology companies on Thursday. It is worth noting that 10-Year US Treasury Bonds The yield rose about 9 basis points to 3.863%. The information technology sector led the S&P 500 lower, falling more than 2%, underscoring weakness among the group.
“The market has been very quiet pretty much all morning,” said George Paul, chairman of Sanders Morris. “We have had a very thinly traded market, and today it looks ahead with some fear and anxiety about Labor Day and what might happen after.”
Thursday’s move comes as market participants turn their attention to Powell’s speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium on Friday, hoping for more insights on interest rate policy. Traders are unanimous in expecting borrowing costs to fall next month, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool, but are divided on whether the cut will be a quarter-point or half-point.
This will come on the heels of minutes from the Fed’s July meeting released on Wednesday, which indicated that most participants at the central bank’s meeting said it was “likely” appropriate to cut the federal funds rate from its current range of 5.25% to 5.5% at its September meeting — if data continues to flow in as expected.
With Thursday’s decline, the Nasdaq settled at a slightly lower level than flat for the week, while the Dow and S&P 500 rose 0.1% and 0.3%, respectively.
In corporate news, software company snowflake Apple Inc.’s profit fell 14.7% as higher costs weighed on operating margins. However, the company beat quarterly expectations and slightly raised its full-year product revenue outlook. Urban Outfitters U.S. retail sales fell 9.6% after disappointing same-store sales growth in the second quarter.
Clarification: The story has been updated to reflect that the Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rates from their current range of 5.25% to 5.5%.
