Wall Street taps down as Tech and bank stocks weigh

NEW YORK – Wall Street closed slightly lower on Thursday as technology and financial stocks fell, erasing earlier gains from US Federal Reserve reports that the central bank had opened the debate on when to suspend interest rate increases.

The top three US indexes ended the session by a fraction of a percent.

The minutes showed that almost all members of the Fed agreed that another rate hike "would probably be justified in the near future", but it also highlighted a series of problems that were beginning to emerge. weigh in their vision of the economy. This publication briefly raised the shares on the positive side, but the gains were wiped out at closing.

Wall Street had rebounded a day earlier, as comments by Fed Chairman Jerome Powell signaled to many investors that the Fed's three-year tightening cycle could soon come to an end.

"The Fed's position is much more accommodating than it was earlier in the year," said Matthew Keator, a partner of Keator Group, a wealth management company based in Lenox. , in Mbadachusetts. "(The Fed also) indicated that they would examine the data rather than settle for an ideological strategy of raising rates to more normal historical averages."

Investors are worried about tariffs fears as they look into the upcoming G20 summit in Buenos Aires, where US President Donald Trump was due to meet with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Saturday to discuss trade.

Trump Thursday sent contradictory signals about a possible trade deal between the world's two largest economies, lending it to a hectic session.

Technology stocks weighed the most on the top three US stock indices, with the S & P 500 sector losing 0.95%.

Interest-rate-sensitive financial products fell 0.8%, 10-year US Treasury yields following the publication of the minutes of the Fed.

Among the major US banks, the shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Morgan Stanley closed the session between 0.8 and 1.8%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average Index lost 27.59 points, or 0.11%, to 25,338.84%, the S & P 500 lost 5.99 points, or 0.22%, to 2,737 points , 8% and the Nasdaq Composite lost 18.51 points, or 0.25%, to 7,273.08.

Of the 11 main sectors of the S & P 500, five have closed in negative territory.

Twitter Inc. dropped 4.4% after a Politico report that Fox News boycotted the social media network seemed to fuel concerns over a broader reaction.

Dollar Tree Inc rose 6.1% after the discount retailer said the rates would have minimal impact this year.

Shares in Abercrombie & Finch Co, a teenage clothing retailer, jumped 20.9% after forecast better-than-expected holiday sales.

Falling issuance outnumbered growth on the NYSE with a ratio of 1.08 to 1; on the Nasdaq, a ratio of 1.23 to 1 favored the decline.

The S & P 500 recorded 20 new highs over 52 weeks and 3 new lows. the Nasdaq composite recorded 41 new highs and 63 new lows.

The volume of US trade amounted to 6.85 billion shares, against 7.67 billion on average over the last 20 trading days.

(Report by Stephen Culp, edited by Phil Berlowitz)