Wall Street’s main indexes closed lower on Wednesday, with the Nasdaq leading declines, as technology stocks slumped on Thanksgiving eve on worries the Federal Reserve may be cautious about rate cuts after stubbornly strong U.S. inflation data.
Data showed consumer spending increased solidly in October, suggesting the U.S. economy maintained its strong pace of growth, but progress on lowering inflation appeared to have stalled.
Traders added to bets the Fed will lower borrowing costs by 25 basis points at its December meeting, according to CME’s FedWatch. However, they anticipate the central bank leaving rates unchanged at its January and March meetings.
Investors were still gauging the impact of President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge on Monday to impose duties of 25% on imports from Mexico and Canada and 10% on Chinese goods unless they halt flows of the deadly opioid fentanyl and illegal migrants into the U.S.
In a note this week, Goldman Sachs said an escalation in tariff policy risks delaying the return to the 2.0% inflation target.
According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 lost 22.85 points, or 0.38%, to end at 5,998.78 points, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 113.80 points, or 0.59%, to 19,061.78. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 136.31 points, or 0.31%, to 44,723.23.
Dell Technologies (NYSE: DELL) slumped 12% and HP (NYSE: HPQ) dropped almost 6% after downbeat quarterly forecasts, weighing on the Information Technology sector, which dropped 1.2%.
The sentiment spread to megacaps such as Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), while the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index ended 1.8% lower.
The Russell 2000 index was sluggish after hitting a record high earlier in the week. It ended 0.1% higher.
Investors also assessed data earlier in the day which showed the economy grew at a solid clip in the third quarter. Weekly jobless claims fell again last week, leaving the door open for another rate cut from the Fed in December.
“Inflation has proven to be a little stickier than the Fed would have liked, which may give them pause with respect to cutting rates,” said Scott Welch, chief investment officer at Certuity.
“There are questions around the effects of Trump’s stated tariff policy, which, if implemented could be pretty inflationary and so the Fed is going to have to balance itself between the economic data and the incoming administration’s policy agenda.”
Minutes from the Fed’s November meeting, released on Tuesday, showed policymakers were uncertain about the outlook for interest-rate cuts and how much the current rates were restricting the economy.
The benchmark S&P 500 was on track for its biggest one-month rise in a year and its sixth month of gains out of seven, as markets price in the view that Trump’s policies will benefit local businesses and the overall economy.
Workday (NASDAQ: WDAY) slipped 6.2% after forecasting fourth-quarter subscription revenue below expectations, hit by weaker client spending on its human capital management software.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.64-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 406 new highs and 54 new lows on the NYSE.
The S&P 500 posted 79 new 52-week highs and no new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 136 new highs and 71 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 11.40 billion shares ahead of the holiday, compared with the 14.92 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.
