Nov 17 (Reuters) – Wall Street’s main indexes were modestly lower in a tense session on Thursday, as dovish comments from a U.S. Federal Reserve official and data showing a tight labor market raised some investors’ concerns about more aggressive interest rate hikes.
St. Louis Fed President James Bullard he said The central bank should continue to raise interest rates, saying that its tightening so far has had “only a limited impact on observed inflation.”
Stocks have retreated in recent days after a strong month-long rally with softer-than-expected inflation reports raising hopes that the Fed will ease interest rate hikes.
“The Fed is still generally talking about interest rates,” said Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Investment Management in Chicago. “There may be some disagreement about the pace. But interest rates are not going to come down any time soon.”
Stocks pared losses late in the session, but major indexes still ended in negative territory.
Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) The S&P 500 fell 7.51 points, or 0.02%, to 33,546.32. (.SPX) The Nasdaq Composite lost 12.23 points, or 0.31%, to 3,946.56. (.IXIC) It fell 38.70 points or 0.35% to 11,144.96.
History The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell last week, suggesting the labor market remains tight. A report on Wednesday detailed strong retail sales growth last month that showed the economy was bracing for rate hikes.
Traders’ bets on the next Fed meeting rose 75 basis points to 19% from about 15% a day earlier, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool. Most investors still expect a 50 basis point hike.
Cisco Systems (CSCO.O) shares rose 5% after the company raised full-year revenue and profit forecast with reduced supply chain barriers. The stock helped the S&P 500 information technology sector (.SPLRCT) Save 0.2% profit.
Most S&P 500 sectors ended lower, with utilities leading the way (.SPLRCU) 1.8% reduction and left to the discretion of the consumer (.SPLRCD) decreased by about 1.3%.
Shares of Macy’s in company news (MN) It increased by 15% after the chain of department stores raised annual profit forecast on continued demand for high-end clothing and beauty products.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a ratio of 2.06 to 1; A 1.65-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 1 new 52-week high and 1 new low; The Nasdaq Composite recorded 46 new highs and 169 new lows.
About 10.3 billion shares changed hands on US exchanges, compared to a daily average of 12.1 billion over the past 20 sessions.
Reporting by Lewis Krauskopf in New York, Bansari Mayur Kamdar, Ankika Biswas and Amruta Khandekar in Bengaluru; Edited by Vinay Dwivedi, Arun Koyyur and David Gregorio
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