U.S. stock indexes are edging lower on Thursday as Walmart drags Wall Street toward a fifth straight loss and hopes dim a bit for coming cuts to interest rates.
The S&P 500 dipped 0.4% and was on track for a fifth straight modest loss since setting an all-time high last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 195 points, or 0.4%, as of noon Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.4% lower.
Walmart was one of the market’s heaviest weights and fell 4.3% after reporting a profit for the spring that came up short of analysts’ expectations, while Nvidia and other Big Tech stocks held a bit steadier following two days of sharp swings.
The moves were stronger in the bond market, where Treasury yields rose after a report forced Wall Street to scale back hopes that the Federal Reserve may soon deliver relief by cutting interest rates.
The report suggested growth in U.S. business activity is accelerating and hit its fastest rate so far this year. That’s good news for the economy, but the preliminary data from S&P Global also said tariffs helped push up average selling prices at the fastest rate in three years. That’s a discouraging sign for inflation.
Taken all together, such data has historically aligned more with the Federal Reserve considering a hike in interest rates, rather than a cut, according to Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.
No one expects a rate hike to happen soon, but the overwhelming expectation on Wall Street has been for coming cuts. Traders are betting on a nearly 72% chance that the Fed will lower its main interest rate at its next meeting in September, according to data from CME Group. The hope on Wall Street has been that Fed Chair Jerome Powell may give hints on Friday that easier rates may be coming.
He will be speaking in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, at an annual conference of central bankers that’s been home to big policy announcements in the past.
A cut in interest rates would be the first of the year, and it would give investment prices and the economy a boost by making it cheaper to borrow to buy houses, cars or equipment. But it could also risk worsening inflation.
The Fed has been hesitant to cut interest rates this year out of fear that President Donald Trump’s tariffs could push inflation higher, but a surprisingly weak report on job growth across the country earlier this month suddenly made the job market a bigger worry. Trump, meanwhile, has angrily pushed for cuts to interest rates, often insulting Powell while doing so.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.33% from 4.29%. The two-year Treasury, which moves more on expectations for what the Federal Reserve will do with short-term interest rates, climbed to 3.79% from 3.74%.
On Wall Street, Walmart dropped even though it reported encouraging growth in revenue during the latest qaurter and raised its forecast for profit over its full fiscal year.
Analysts said the market’s expectations were high coming into the report. The Bentonville, Arkansas, company’s stock came into the day with a gain of 13.5% for the year so far, well above the rest of the market.
Big Tech stocks are under even more pressure to deliver bigger profits amid criticism that their stock prices ran too high, too fast and have become too expensive because of the frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology.
Several AI superstar stocks have swung sharply this week, taking some shine off their skyscraping surges for the year, because of such criticism. But they held a bit steadier on Thursday.
Palantir Technologies, which at one point on Wednesday was on track to fall more than 9% for a second straight day before paring its loss, dipped 0.4%. Nvidia, the chip company that’s become the poster child of the AI boom, slipped 0.4%.
Coty tumbled 20.3% after the beauty products company reported a loss for the latest quarter, when analysts expected a slight profit. The company, whose brands include CoverGirl and Joop!, said uncertainty about tariffs and the economy are making retailers cautious in their orders.
On the winning side of Wall Street was Nordson, which makes products and systems used for precision dispensing and other things. It delivered profit and revenue for the latest quarter that topped analysts’ expectations, and its stock rose 5.4%.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across much of Europe and Asia.
Germany, Europe’s largest economy, saw its DAX return 0.1% after U.S. and European Union officials offered a framework for their trade deal.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.6% after a survey showed Japan’s factory activity contracted again in August.
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AP Writers Teresa Cerojano and Matt Ott contributed.
