Wall Street’s main indexes were subdued in choppy trading on Wednesday as traders assessed measured comments from U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and awaited key economic data due later in the week.
Although the recent numbers point to a resilient economy, commentary from Fed officials has injected some wariness, especially about the labor market, prompting investors to tread carefully.
Powell sounded a cautious note on Tuesday when he said asset prices appeared fairly highly valued.
Even as his colleagues staked out arguments on both sides of the policy divide, the Fed chair emphasized the tightrope the central bank must walk in upcoming interest-rate decisions as it navigates inflation risks and addresses signs of a softening labor market.
“The market was somewhat caught off guard by Powell’s stock market valuation comments and took that as a signal that perhaps the Fed could be concerned about elevated asset prices,” said Thomas Hayes, chairman at Great Hill Capital.
“So many managers that sold in April are still behind their benchmarks, so any weakness has to be bought. And I think you’re going to see more of that,” he said.
At 10:20 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 54.27 points, or 0.12%, to 46,347.05, the S&P 500 .SPXadded 2.36 points, or 0.03%, to 6,658.65, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 16.15 points, or 0.07%, to 22,589.62.
S&P 500 technology stocks declined 0.1%, with Apple edging 0.6% lower.
Photoshop-maker Adobe fell 3.1% after Morgan Stanley downgraded it to “equal weight” from “overweight”.
Declines in technology stocks also weighed on the Nasdaq.
Consumer discretionary added 0.8% on the S&P 500, boosted by gains in Tesla and Amazon which were up 2.8% and 0.7%, respectively. Amazon advanced after Wells Fargo upgraded it to “overweight” from “equal weight”.
Energy companies rose 1.5%, while a 1% fall in Alphabet led communication services 0.4% lower.
Gains in banks such as JPMorgan which was up 1.1%, drove the Dow higher.
U.S.-listed shares of Chinese companies rose, led by an 8.9% gain in Alibaba Group which unveiled a partnership with Nvidia.
Lithium Americas-listed shares surged 89.2% after Reuters reported on Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s administration was seeking an up to 10% equity stake in the company.
Talks are underway to discuss a government loan exceeding $2.26 billion for the company’s Thacker Pass lithium project with General Motors which rose 2.4%. A report also said UBS had upgraded General Motors to “buy” from “neutral”.
ServiceNow added 2.9% after a Morgan Stanley upgrade.
Marvell Technology gained 3.9% after the chipmaker unveiled a $5-billion stock repurchase program.
Micron Technology fell 1.7% after the memory chipmaker reported quarterly results.
Oracle slipped 2.8% after a report said the company was looking to raise $15 billion in corporate bond sales.
Freeport-McMoRan fell 10.5%, to the bottom of the benchmark index, after forecasting lower consolidated sales for copper and gold in the third quarter.
Investors will now focus on the core personal consumption expenditures data, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, later this week.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.17-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.36-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted 18 new 52-week highs and five new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 58 new highs and 26 new lows.
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