Stocks waver on Wall Street; Big Tech Firms dip
Newslooks- NEW YORK (AP)
Stocks wavered in midday trading on Wall Street Monday as markets cool down following their biggest weekly gain since the summer.
The S&P 500 fell 0.1% as of 11:49 a.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 76 points, or 0.2%, to 33,824 and the Nasdaq fell 0.5%.
Trading remained uncertain. The benchmark S&P 500 was roughly split between gainers and losers, but was weighed down by technology stocks, which helped lead the market higher last week. Microsoft fell 1.7% and Apple fell 1%.
Bond yields rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which influences mortgage rates, rose to 3.87% from 3.81% late Thursday. Bond markets were closed on Friday for Veterans Day.
U.S. crude oil prices fell 2.1%.
Markets in Europe were mostly higher and markets in Asia were mixed.
Crytpo-related stocks remained unstable following the implosion last week of FTX, a major crypto trading exchange. Coinbase, another crypto exchange platform, was off 5.8%.
Investors are anticipating more data this week that could give them a better picture on whether the hottest inflation in decades is easing and how consumers are handling high prices.
On Tuesday, the government issues its October report on prices at the wholesale level, which analysts forecast to have retreated slightly to 8.3% year-over-year from September’s 8.5%. That comes on the heels of last week’s report on consumer prices showing that inflation eased more than economists anticipated in October.
Investors are hoping that more data showing inflation easing means the Federal Reserve can be less aggressive about raising interest rates to get it under control. Economists expect the Fed to raise its benchmark lending rate in December, but by only a half a percentage point following four hikes of 0.75 percentage points, three times the usual margin.
Wall Street will also receive an important update on consumer spending on Wednesday with the government’s retail sales report for October. Consumers have remained mostly resilient as they get squeezed by high prices. That has been a good sign for the economy as recession fears linger, but potentially bad for the Fed as it tries to slow economic growth and tame inflation.
Economists expect overall retails sales to grow 0.9% in October, according to FactSet, after remaining flat in September. The report, though, is not adjusted for inflation and sales growth could be attributed to higher prices on everything from food to clothing.
Additional insight into consumer spending could come from several big retailers when they report their latest financial results this week. Home Depot and Walmart report earnings on Tuesday. Target reports its results on Wednesday and Macy’s reports results on Thursday.
