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U.S. stocks hovered near their lows in volatile trading on Thursday, as investors reviewed data showing the U.S. economy’s recovery in the third quarter and looked at quarterly results from a famous companies. Dragged a slide in the Meta . Platform down to Nasdaq. The bond market extended their rally to the third day in a row.
In late afternoon trading, the S&P 500 (SP500) to be down 0.43% to 3,814.29 points. The benchmark index had previously gained as much as 0.8% in the morning, but then reversed course and gradually declined.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (COMP.IND) yes lose 1.50% down to 10,806.31 points, as Meta fell more than 20% on bad financial numbers. Dow blue-chip index (DJI) to be up 0.81% at 32,097.20 points.
Seven of the 11 S&P sectors traded in the green, with Industry and Energy the top gainers. Among the 4 sectors that dropped points, Information Services was the one that dropped the most.
US GDP figures for the third quarter came in with a higher-than-anticipated gain of 2.6% versus consensus of 2.3%. The data helped ease recession fears, but also showed that the Federal Reserve’s rate hikes have yet to have their full effect in terms of cooling the economy.
“It’s hard to say at this point that the Fed has made a lot of progress in pushing economic growth below trend… A lot of nominal growth still needs to be removed from the economy, probably going to be. leads to higher interest rates”, contributor of Seeking Alpha Mort Capital Management speak.
Quarterly earnings were also central to Thursday’s action. Industrial lanyard Caterpillaraerospace parts manufacturer Honeywellgiant fast food McDonald’s and the apothecary Merck all achieved after their report. Along with the rebound in Boeing shares, they helped lift the Dow Jones.
Among other income-related news, Comcast and ServiceNow Also increased. Megacap technology companies Amazon and Apple will continuously report after the bell today, along with Intel.
Moving on to interest rates, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note (US10Y) fell 7 basis points to 3.95% and the 2-year yield (US2Y) fell 9 basis points to 4.33%. Dollar Index (DXY) to be + 0.8%.
“Demand for 10-year bonds has been sizable since peaking at 4.34% on Friday,” said Michael Brown of Caxton. “Two factors seem to be driving this – the Fed’s slower rate of appreciation and some haven demand as a result of yesterday’s drop in risk appetite. Break below 4%. could make things interesting and will certainly cause further difficulties for the dollar, hitting a three-week low against a basket of peers on Wednesday.”
Earlier in the day, the European Central Bank raised interest rates by 75 basis points for the second meeting in a row, went ahead as expected.
Market participants all expect the Fed to raise rates by 75 basis points at their policy meeting starting next Wednesday. Speculation that the central bank might hint at slowing the numbers up has helped lift stocks since last week.
“We expect the FOMC to keep its options open rather than give guidance that the pace of rate hikes is slowing in December,” said UBS’s Jonathan Pingle. “Mathematically, the FOMC seems likely to slow growth. The federal funds rate shouldn’t be a monotonically increasing function forever,” he added.
In other economic news on the domestic market, the personal consumption expenditures price index was at +4.2%, down from +7.3% previously.
Initial unemployment claims increased to 217 thousand from the expected figure of 223 thousand.
September durable goods orders stood at +0.4%, lower than the forecast of +0.6%.
