The Dow Jones New York Stock Exchange ended lower on Thursday (Aug. 31), while the Nasdaq closed in positive territory for a fifth straight day after the US released inflation data that was in line with analysts’ expectations. This supported expectations that the US Federal Reserve (Fed) will stop raising interest rates. While investors keep an eye on the release of US nonfarm payrolls today. For more clear signals about the direction of the Fed.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 34,721.91 points, down 168.33 points or -0.48%, the S&P 500 closed at 4,507.66 points, down 7.21 points or -0.16%, and the Nasdaq Index closed at 14,034.97 points, up 15.66 points or +0.11%.
The Nasdaq index rebounded to its highest level in more than four weeks after the US Commerce Department said. The headline Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) price index, which includes food and energy, rose 3.3 percent in July year on year. in line with analysts’ forecasts
As for the core PCE index, which excludes the food and energy sectors. It was the Fed’s primary focus on inflation, rising 4.2 percent in July year over year. This is in line with analyst expectations as well.
The latest data from CME Group’s FedWatch Tool shows investors are 88.5% weighing on the Fed holding rates at 5.25-5.50% at its September meeting. And give 51% weight that the Fed will hold interest rates unchanged at its November meeting.
Seven of the 11 stocks comprised of the S&P 500 ended negative, with the Healthcare index shedding 1.21% and the Utilities Index shedding 1.03%.
Technology stocks soar After the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield tumbled to 4.09% overnight, with Amazon shares up 2.2%, Micron Technology shares rose 2.72%, and meta-platform shares gained 0.27%.
Salesforce, the US software giant, soared 3% after it posted higher-than-expected second-quarter 2023 profit and revenue. Financial year 2023
Tesla was the busiest of all S&P 500-listed stocks, closing 0.46 percent higher and trading at $27.7 billion.
Shares of Chinese companies listed on the US stock market tumble. After China released its Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), the manufacturing sector contracted for a fifth straight month, with JD.com and Baidu shares down 2.2% and 1.6% respectively.
Considering the entire month of Aug. The S&P 500 was down 1.8%, the Dow was down 2.4% and the Nasdaq was down 2.2%.
For the economic data that was released last night The Labor Department reported initial claims for unemployment benefits fell 4,000 to a seasonally adjusted 228,000 last week. And below analysts’ forecast of 235,000.
Investors keep an eye on US non-farm payrolls figures for August today. While analysts expected Employment numbers rose by 170,000 in August. after adding 187,000 jobs in July The unemployment rate in August is expected to remain stable at 3.5%.
2023-08-31 23:32:22
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