Wall Street ends flat, but S&P hits another closing high as rate-cut bets waver

New Straits Times

2 days ago

NEW YORK: Wall Street's main indexes were mixed on Thursday with S&P 500 edging up to a closing high, while the Dow Jones and Nasdaq were flat, after a hotter-than-expected producer prices report dampened expectations of potential interest-rate cuts.
A Labor Department report showed producer prices increased the most in three years in July due to a surge in the costs of goods and services, suggesting a broad pickup in inflation was imminent.
Traders trimmed their Fed rate-cut expectations for the rest of the year to about 56.7 basis points, according to data compiled by LSEG, compared with around 63 bps before the report.
But they are still fully pricing in a quarter-percentage-point cut in September.
"The implication is that the Fed is going to offer a 25-(basis point) cut in September. But it will be a hawkish cut. It's way too early still for the Fed to wish to guide the market towards an extended easing cycle," said Thierry Wizman, global FX and rates strategist at Macquarie Group.
"The next important thing will be the Expenditures Price Index later this month. If there are signals that there's inflation broadly in services, the market will take that adversely."
A separate report on Thursday showed the number of Americans filing new applications for jobless benefits fell last week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 11.01 points, or 0.02 per cent, down to 44,911.26, the S&P 500 gained 1.96 points, or 0.03 per cent, to 6,468.54 - a new closing high - and the Nasdaq Composite lost 2.47 points, or 0.01 per cent, to 21,710.67.
On Thursday, seven of the 11 S&P 500 sectors declined.
Recent data reflecting labor market weakness and a moderate rise in consumer prices had strengthened expectations that the central bank will potentially lower interest rates next month.
However, Thursday's report fanned concerns that US tariffs on imports could start to impact prices in the coming months and dampen a rally in US stocks that had helped the benchmark S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq log record highs over the past two sessions.
"US stocks are pricy," said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist CFRA Research.
The S&P 500 index is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 23 based on forward estimates, or a near-40 per cent premium to its 20-year average, he said.
The hotter-than-expected PPI report now has investors pulling petals from a daisy saying "They (the Fed) will cut rates, they won't cut rates," he added.
St. Louis Fed President Alberto Musalem, a voting member on the Federal Open Market Committee this year, said a half-point rate cut at the Fed's September meeting is not warranted, a day after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said it was possible.
Intel Corp rose 7.4 per cent as Bloomberg News reported the Trump administration is in talks with Intel to have the US government potentially take a stake in the chipmaker, the news organization reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the plan.
Cisco Systems declined 1.6 per cent after the network equipment manufacturer's broadly in-line forecast did little to encourage investors.
Deere & Co fell 6.8 per cent after the farm-equipment maker reported a lower quarterly profit and tightened its annual profit forecast, while Tapestry plunged 15.7 per cent after the Coach handbag maker forecast annual profit below estimates.
Both companies warned of tariffs impacting their businesses.
In geopolitics, focus will be on President Donald Trump's upcoming meeting with Russia's President Vladimir Putin as he seeks to achieve a halt to the Ukraine conflict.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 2.29-to-1 ratio on the NYSE.
On the Nasdaq, declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 2.14-to-1 ratio.
The S&P 500 posted 15 new 52-week highs and one new low while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 78 new highs and 78 new lows.
Volume on US exchanges was relatively light, with 16.3 billion shares traded, compared to an average of 18.3 billion shares over the previous 20 sessions.