Wall Street shrinks as technology and banking stocks weigh

Traders are working on the NYSE in New York, United States, November 28, 2018. REUTERS / Brendan McDermid

November 29, 2018

By Stephen Culp

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

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 increase "would probably be justified in the near future", but it also highlighted a series of problems that were beginning to 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, Mbadachusetts. "(The Fed also said it would look at the data rather than ideologically content with a policy 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 his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Saturday to discuss trade.

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

Technology stocks weighed the most on the top three US stock indices, with the S & P 500 technology sector <.SPLRCT> down 0.95 percent.

Financial data sensitive to interest rates <.SPNY> down 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 ended the session between 0.8 and 1.8%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> down 27.59 points, or 0.11%, to 25,338.84, the S & P 500 <.SPX> lost 5.99 points, or 0.22%, to 2,737.8 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> 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 fell 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 increased by 6.1% after the discount retailer stated that the rates would have minimal impact this year.

Shares of Abercrombie & Finch Co Teenwear Retailer jumped 20.9% after forecasting 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 shares on average during the last 20 trading days.

(Report by Stephen Culp, edited by Phil Berlowitz)