U.S. stock indexes extended their losses Wednesday afternoon, as Wall Street digested a slightly more hawkish update from the Federal Reserve on the pace of the U.S. economic recovery from COVID and on inflation.
How are stock benchmarks trading?
-
The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-0.83%
traded 280 points lower around 34,021 off by about 0.8%. -
The S&P 500 index
SPX,
-0.70%
traded about 27 points lower, or 0.7%, at 4,218. -
The Nasdaq Composite Index
COMP,
-0.78%
slipped 86 points to 13,986, a dip of 0.6%.
On Tuesday, the Dow fell 94.42 points, or 0.3%, to 34,299.33; the S&P 500 finished off 8.56 points, or 0.2%, at 4,246.59; the Nasdaq Composite declined 101.29 points, or 0.7%, to 14,072.86.
What’s driving the market?
Stocks headed lower, but were off the session’s worst levels, after the Fed left its easy monetary policy stance unchanged, but signaled the central bank expects to hike rates twice in 2023, and raised its inflation forecast, as part of its April policy statement update
Live blog: Fed decision day and Powell presser
See also: Fed now sees two interest rate hikes in 2023
“At first glance, it is a little bit hawkish,” Zhiwei Ren, portfolio manager of Penn Mutual Asset Management, told MarketWatch, following the central bank’s statement and update that included a forecast to hike rates twice in 2023.
The Fed also said it would slightly raise the overnight borrowing rate it pay banks and others to park cash temporarily with the central bank, and bump up the rate it pays on overnight reverse repurchase agreements, which have seen a surge in demand in recent weeks.
The Fed said it would keep its bond purchases unchanged at $80 billion of Treasurys and $40 billion of mortgage-backed securities each month.
In its statement, the Fed stuck to its guns and said the recent burst of inflation would be transitory. At the same time, it acknowledged that inflation would be much higher this year, raising its forecast for headline PCE inflation to 3%.
Last Thursday’s consumer-price index report from the U.S. Labor Department showed that the cost of living surged in May and drove the pace of inflation to a 13-year high of 5%, reflecting a broad increase in prices confronting Americans.
In the face of rising inflation, the timing of any tapering of asset purchases looks tricky for the U.S. central bank, since the recovery in the labor market still looks shaky and is reflected in the weaker-than-expected May nonfarm payrolls report and the job openings data, which hit a record 9.3 million.
Thus far, the Fed has described evidence of inflation as largely derived from transitory factors, including a removal of lockdown protocols intended to damp the spread of coronavirus, as well as supply-chain bottlenecks.
“The focus today is on the potential for future policy changes,” Sean Simko, head of fixed income portfolio management at SEI, in emailed comments, adding that Powell may look to “lay the groundwork for changes to its current bond buying program-taper talk,” in his afternoon briefing.
Check out: 4 things to watch as the Fed makes its latest monetary-policy decision
Some prominent investors and economists have voiced the opinion that the Fed may be too complacent about rising prices and that they that could turn out to be more lasting that the central bank forecasts.
Read: An inflation storm is coming for the U.S. housing market
“We aren’t in the camp that says a sustained inflation problem is a done deal, but we do think that the Fed now needs everything to go right if inflation is to return to the target, as per the March forecasts, by the end of next year,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, in a note.
Internationally, China said it plans to release national reserves of major industrial metals as to rein in a soaring commodities prices during a resumption of global economic activity. That news comes as data out of China showed that factory output slowed for a third straight month in May. Chinese industrial production rose 8.8% in May from a year ago, slower than the 9.8% uptick in April.
In other economic news, U.S. housing permits dropped 3% in May to 1.68 million yearly pace, while starts climbed 3.6% to 1.57 million annual rate. April U.S. housing starts fell to 1.52 million from 1.76 million. U.S. import prices rose 1.1% in May—and were up 0.9% minus fuel—contributing to an 11.3% in the past 12 months.
Which companies are in focus?
-
Oracle stock
ORCL,
-5.66%
was in focus after Q4 results late Tuesday. The tech company reported fourth-quarter earnings of $4.03 billion, or $1.37 a share, on sales of $11.23 billion, up from $10.44 billion a year ago. Shares were down 6%. - Shares of meal-kit provider Blue Apron Inc. APRN were in focus after the company priced a dilutive stock offering of 4.7 million shares at a discount of $4.25 per share. Its stock was down 22%.
- ARK Invest disclosed that it purchased DraftKings DKNG shares worth $42 million on Tuesday, the same day the short selling research firm Hindenburg alleged the company’s gambling-technology unit operates in countries where gambling is banned. DraftKings says the subsidiary, SBTech, doesn’t operate in any illegal market. The DraftKings purchases by Ark — in the Ark Innovation ETF ARKW and the Ark Next Generation Internet ETF ARKK—were the largest single stock purchase by the Cathie Wood-run fund manager on Tuesday. Shares of DraftKings were down 1%.
- Confluent Inc. CFLT, has set terms of its initial public offering, which could value the California-based data infrastructure software company at up to $8.33 billion.
- Elanco Animal Health Inc. ELAN said Wednesday it has entered an agreement to acquire Kindred Biosciences Inc. KIN for about $440 million, adding three potential dermatology blockbusters to its pipeline. Shares of Elanco were up 3.4%, while those for Kindred surged 45%.
- WalkMe Ltd. WKME, an Israeli customer engagement platform, said Wednesday its initial public offering priced at $31 a share, compared with its proposed price range of $29 to $32.
- Amazon.com Inc. AMZN said Wednesday it has committed $300 million to help accelerate the creation of up to 3,000 new affordable housing units across the Puget Sound area in Washington, in Washington, D.C. and Nashville. Its stock was down 0.2%.
How are other assets faring?
- The yield on the 10-year Treasury note TMUBMUSD10Y rose 4 basis points to 1.54%, following the Fed statement. Yields and bond prices move in opposite directions.
- The ICE U.S. Dollar Index DXY, a measure of the currency against a basket of six major rivals, shot up 0.5%.
- Oil futures CL00 slipped, with West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery down 0.4% at $71.85 a barrel, after its nearly 2% rise on Tuesday. Gold futures GC00 settled higher at $1,861.40 an ounce, snapping a three-session slump.
- European equities rose, with the pan-Continental Stoxx Europe 600 SXXP up 0.2%, booking a record-extending 9th straight all-time closing high. London’s FTSE 100 UKX rose 0.2% to its highest level in a year.
- In Asia, the Shanghai Composite SHCOMP closed down 1%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index HSI ended 0.7% lower and Japan’s Nikkei 225 NIK shed 0.5%.
