Wall St slides as growth stocks fall after producer prices data

Wall Street fell on Friday as rate-sensitive technology and growth stocks dropped after hotter-than-expected producer prices data for July sent U.S. bond yields higher.

U.S. producer price index (PPI) climbed 0.8% in the 12 months leading to July, up from a 0.2% rise in the previous month, as service costs increased. Economists polled by Refinitiv had expected a 0.7% gain.

“The PPI data shows that inflation is still a concern,” said Adam Sarhan, chief executive of 50 Park Investments.

Though traders broadly expect the Federal Reserve to not tighten credit conditions for the remainder of the year, bets for no rate hike in September slipped to 88.5% from 90% before the data landed.

“The market needs to pause and digest the inflation data which is coming in mixed, where it’s not clear what the Fed’s going do next. Even if the Fed pauses one time, the question becomes what will it be doing for the rest of the year,” Sarhan added.

Yield on the 2-year treasury note, that moves in line with near-term interest rate expectations, climbed to 4.9% after the data, pressuring rate-sensitive megacap growth names.

Tesla, Nvidia and Apple lost between 0.4% and 1.8%.

Benchmark U.S. indexes finished marginally higher in the previous session as worries about the U.S. economy’s longer-term prospects and concerns over further growth in stocks eclipsed milder-than-feared consumer prices data that had initially sent shares soaring.

At 09:48 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 34.32 points, or 0.10%, at 35,141.83, the S&P 500 was down 19.21 points, or 0.43%, at 4,449.62, and the Nasdaq Composite was down 101.36 points, or 0.74%, at 13,636.63.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq and the S&P 500 were on track to end their second week lower due to a drop in megacap growth and technology stocks that have led outsized gains this year.

Ten of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors declined on Friday, with tech stocks leading losses, down 0.8%.

U.S.-listed shares of Chinese companies Alibaba and JD.com fell 3.0% and 5.4%, respectively, as Beijing’s latest stimulus measures disappointed investors, while fresh data showed that the country’s post-pandemic recovery was losing steam.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.85-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 1.75-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded one new 52-week high and three new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 18 new highs and 82 new lows.