NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks retreated early Wednesday as markets digested President Biden’s State of the Union address and the latest remarks by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
Biden stuck heavily to kitchen table issues as he went back and forth with far-right Republicans, who were heckling and mocking throughout his speech. The US president demanded an uneventful accord to raise the debt ceiling and advocated a “billionaire’s” tax.
Earlier, Powell had described the mission of bringing down inflation as a long, gradual and “bumpy” process in remarks that analysts described as not overly hawkish.
Wall Street edges lower ahead of Powell comments
About 20 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.1 percent at 34,109.84.
The broad-based S&P 500 declined 0.4 percent to 4,146.76, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.7 percent to 12,035.20.
Among individual companies, Uber Technologies jumped 3.2 percent after reporting better than expected profits on strong demand for its ride-hailing services.
But Chipotle Mexican Grill slid 4.2 percent after reporting results that missed analyst estimates. The company pointed to a “challenging and fluid macro environment” as a drag.
Oak Street Health jumped 3.9 percent after it agreed to be bought by pharmacy chain CVS Health for $10.6 billion. CVS rose 4.2 percent.
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