[ad_1]
By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK (Reuters) – US stocks have slowed further than recent highs on Thursday, as energy stocks fell, as did oil prices, and investors continued to equate the Federal Reserve Chairman's comments. , Jerome Powell.
The energy index was the largest decline among the main sectors of the S & P industry, down 1.71% and prolonging its recent decline. Oil prices in the United States fell by more than 2% for fear of oversupply.
"For better or for worse, many investors have been trained to deal with the decline in oil, which could mean light demand and therefore light economic activity," said Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners. in Pittsburgh.
Powell's comments on Wednesday that a drop in inflation this year could be due to transitional factors have dampened the hope of some investors that the US central bank may act later this year to lower rates of interest, said market observers.
Traders dropped their bets on a rate cut this year following Powell's comments, and stocks fell, but many investors said the Fed's position was logical.
"I do not think that reasonable investors are looking for a rate cut right now, and good economic conditions do not necessarily suggest a rate hike either," Forrest said.
The recent record series of the S & P 500 can also give investors reason to pause.
Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial in Newark, New Jersey, said: "The shares have" worked very well and market pockets are exaggerated, "said Quincy Krosby." Usually when the market evolves so quickly, a little caution intervenes. "
The index has grown more than 16% this year and enters a period of the year traditionally known to be difficult for equities over the next six months.
That day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index lost 122.35 points, or 0.46%, to 26,307.79 points, the S & P 500 lost 6.21 points, or 0.21 points %, at 2,917.52 points and the Nasdaq Composite lost 12.87 points, or 0.16%, to 8,036.77.
As the Q1 earnings season comes to an end, investors are looking for new catalysts, such as US-China trade developments and economic data.
Markets are also waiting for a reading of data from the Labor Department's non-farm payroll on Friday, which is expected to show fewer job additions last month compared to March.
More than 350 S & P 500 companies have already released their results for the first quarter. Analysts are now forecasting a 0.7% rise in earnings, compared with the 2% drop estimated at the beginning of April, according to IBES data from the Refinitiv data.
Among the winners, Qualcomm Inc. rose 0.9% after analysts said the chip maker was well positioned in the 5G network space, even though it forecast disappointing sales for the current quarter.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor index gained 1.1%.
Among declining stocks, Dow Inc., DowDuPont Inc.'s core chemicals business, fell 6.1% after falling core earnings.
Kellogg Co lost about 3.4% after the grain and snack maker announced plans to replace its chief financial officer and announced a decline in profits in the first quarter.
But vegan burgers' manufacturer Beyond Meat Inc.'s shares finished 163% on their debut on the market Thursday.
Falling issuance outnumbered growth on the NYSE with a ratio of 1.43 to 1; on the Nasdaq, a ratio of 1.05 to 1 favored the advanced.
The S & P 500 recorded 13 new highs over 52 weeks and six new highs; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 50 new highs and 62 new lows.
US trade volume amounted to 7.31 billion shares, compared with an average of 6.61 billion for the full trading session of the last 20 trading days.
(Report by Caroline Valetkevitch, additional report by Shreyashi Sanyal and Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru, writing by Chizu Nomiyama and Leslie Adler)
[ad_2]
Source link