Reuters/Brendan McDiarmid/File Photo
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on March 7 in New York City. Stocks ended the day slightly lower in choppy trading following labor market data and comments from Federal Reserve officials supporting the rationale for rate cuts.
NEW YORK >> Stocks ended slightly lower in choppy trading today, following remarks from Federal Reserve officials that supported labor market data and the rationale for rate cuts.
U.S. job openings fell to a 3-1/2-year low in July, Labor Department figures show, as the tight labor market continues to ease and the Fed looks set to begin cutting interest rates at its next meeting later this month. This indicates that the movement may become stronger.
The benchmark S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed lower, while the Dow ended slightly higher. Utilities and consumer staples stocks led the gains, but energy and technology stocks were the main drag. Six of the 11 S&P 500 sectors ended lower.
“September is always a tough month, but the economy is holding up,” said Bill Strazzullo, chief market strategist at Bell Curve Trading in Boston. “Consumers are OK, the labor market is OK. We’re still bullish overall.”
Nvidia’s stock, which suffered a steep drop in market value of $279 billion on Tuesday, closed 1.7% lower. Shortly before the deal closed, the company denied media reports that it had received a subpoena from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Other mega-growth stocks also fell, including Apple, which ended 0.9% lower. Microsoft fell 0.1%, Alphabet fell 0.5% and Amazon.com fell 1.7%. Tesla stock rose 4.2%.
Atlanta Fed President Rafael Bostic said today that the central bank should not keep interest rates too high for too long or risk having a huge negative impact on employment. He added that waiting until inflation returns to the Fed’s 2% target before cutting rates “risks labor market disruption and could cause unnecessary pain and suffering.” .
In previous trading, all three Wall Street indexes swung to their biggest one-day losses since early August as investors dumped technology stocks at the start of September, the worst month on record for stocks. It fell.
“Utility stocks are rising today on the weak jobs report, which could lead to a rate cut of at least 25 basis points at the Fed meeting in about two weeks,” said Eric Beirich, the firm’s co-chief investment officer. It just confirms the gender.” A healthy income strategy.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 38.04 points, or 0.09%, to 40,974.97, the S&P 500 fell 8.86 points, or 0.16%, to 5,520.07, and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 52.00 points, or 0.30%, to 17,084.30.
The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index rebounded from the previous session’s biggest single-day drop since the coronavirus pandemic to end at 0.25%.
Advanced Micro Devices rose nearly 3% after the company named former Nvidia executive Keith Strier as senior vice president of global AI markets.
Zscaler fell nearly 19% after the company said it expected fiscal 2025 sales and profits to be lower than expected. Dollar Tree fell 22% after the discount store operator cut its annual sales and profit forecasts.
Total trading volume across U.S. exchanges was about 10.5 billion shares, down from the 20-day moving average of about 11 billion shares.
