The market also focused on the Bank of Japan’s decision to keep its policy interest rate unchanged at 0.25%. Japan also faces political uncertainty after the ruling party, tainted by campaign finance scandals, lost its majority in the lower house in last weekend’s elections.
The scheduled announcement of financial results in Asia and other regions also added to the wait-and-see mood.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 fell 0.3% to 5,813.67 after a series of small gains and losses, but remains close to its all-time high set in early October.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2% to $42,141.54, and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.6% to 18,607.93 from its all-time high set the day before.
Alphabet rose 2.8% in its latest quarter, beating analysts’ expectations, thanks largely to results from its Google business. This is the latest in a highly influential group of stocks known as the “Magnificent Seven” that has exceeded high expectations for growth.
Computer chip companies have been some of the biggest winners in the artificial intelligence rush, but Advanced Micro Devices Inc. reported its latest quarterly profit narrowly matched analysts’ expectations, contributing to an industry-wide stock slide.
Semiconductor giant Nvidia, which has quickly become one of Wall Street’s biggest and most influential stocks, fell 1.4%, making it one of the most heavily weighted stocks in the S&P 500.
One of the few stocks that dragged down the index by the same amount was Eli Lilly, which fell 6.3% on concerns about two of the company’s blockbuster products, diabetes drug Munjaro and weight loss drug Zepbound.
Trump Media & Technology Group, which operates former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform, also fell. The company fell 22.3%, its worst loss since March when it merged with another company and listed on the Nasdaq stock market. The stock is notoriously volatile, having risen significantly from about $12 to as much as $40 in the last month.
In the bond market, yields rose slightly following the latest data on the US economy. According to preliminary U.S. government estimates, overall economic growth slowed from spring to summer. However, performance was slightly better than economists expected.
Wednesday’s report suggested that non-government employers accelerated hiring in October, when economists were predicting an economic slowdown. This could increase optimism for more comprehensive jobs data released by the U.S. government on Friday.
The economic slowdown is not surprising, as the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates significantly in hopes of putting enough brakes on the economy to curb inflation. The question is whether the Fed can keep the economy out of recession now that it has begun lowering interest rates to keep the job market strong.
Traders largely expect the Fed to cut the federal funds rate by a quarter of a percentage point at its next meeting next week, according to data from CME Group.
The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury rose to 4.28% from 4.26% late Tuesday, from just 3.60% in mid-September.
In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude oil rose 46 cents to $69.07 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, added 44 cents to $72.99 a barrel.
In currency trading, the dollar depreciated slightly from 153.31 yen to 152.80 yen. The euro was at $1.0854, gradually falling from $1.0858.
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AP Business Writer Stan Cho contributed.
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Yuri Kageyama appears on X: https://x.com/yurikageyama
AP
AP
