Wall Street drifts lower as markets worldwide pull back
Wall Street edged lower Wednesday after a rally that had sent it roaring 16% higher for the year.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 8.77 points, or 0.2%, to 4,446.82 to drift lower from its highest level since April 2022. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 129.83 points, or 0.4%, to 34,288.64, and the Nasdaq composite lost 25.12 points, or 0.2%, to close at 13,791.65.
Other markets around the world fell more sharply after the latest discouraging signal from China’s economy. Growth in China’s services industry slowed more than economists expected last month. It’s the latest evidence showing the world’s second-largest economy is stumbling in its recovery after the removal of anti-COVID restrictions.
The U.S. economy, meanwhile, has remained stronger than many investors feared. It has defied predictions for a recession because of a job market that’s remained remarkably solid despite much higher interest rates meant to bring down inflation.
A report Wednesday showed growth for U.S. factory orders held steady in May, though economists expected to see an acceleration.
Hope is rising that inflation is cooling enough to get the Federal Reserve to soon stop its rate hikes, which undercut inflation by slowing the entire economy. At its most recent meeting, the Fed decided to hold rates steady, the first time in more than a year that it refrained from raising rates.
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Some Fed officials wanted to raise rates at that last meeting, according to minutes from the June meeting released Wednesday. The vote was unanimous, though, to hold the federal funds rate steady within a range of 5% to 5.25%, up from virtually zero early last year.
Much of Wall Street expects the Fed to raise rates later this month. Less certain is whether a second increase will hit by the end of the year, as the Fed has been hinting. In the end, that may not matter much, said Ross Mayfield, investment strategy analyst at Baird.
“The move from zero to 5% is all that matters,” he said. “The Fed has either gone too far and damaged the economy, and we just haven’t seen it yet, or they haven’t.”
“We’ll see that in due time,” he said, saying one or two more increases of a quarter of a percentage point won’t have that much of an effect by themselves.
That could leave the U.S. stock market stuck in a holding pattern as everyone waits to see whether a long-predicted recession does happen. The upcoming earnings reporting season could offer some clues, with companies telling investors how much profit they earned during the spring.
Mayfield said he’s particularly interested to hear from companies that sell directly to consumers, to see whether the main pillar holding up the U.S. economy is weakening at all.
Yields were mixed in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury edged up to 3.93% from 3.86% on Monday, when bond trading ended early ahead of the Fourth of July holiday. The 10-year yield helps set rates for mortgages and other important loans.
The two-year Treasury yield, which moves more on expectations for the Fed, held steady at 4.94%.
On Wall Street, shares of UPS fell 2.1% as the company tries to reach a deal with the Teamsters union representing about 340,000 of its workers. Their current contract expires at the end of the month, and Teamsters members last month voted in favor of a strike authorization.
More than 300,000 United Parcel Service workers are closer to striking after the company failed to reach an agreement with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
Companies that do a lot of business in the China region were also weak. Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts, which get significant chunks of revenue from Macao, both fell at least 4.6%.
On the winning side was Meta Platforms. The parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp looks poised to unveil a new app that appears to mimic Twitter. It rose 1.9%, adding to a stellar year in which it’s already soared nearly 144.6%.
In stock markets abroad, indexes slumped 1.6% in Hong Kong and 0.7% in Shanghai after the discouraging economic data from China. That added to worries about high tensions between China and the United States, the world’s two largest economies.
Beijing this week announced restrictions on exports of gallium and germanium, two metals used in making semiconductors and solar panels. That came ahead of Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen’s visit this week as part of U.S. efforts to restore strained relations.
Stocks fell 0.3% in Japan, 0.6% in South Korea, 0.8% in France and 0.6% in Germany.
AP writers Matt Ott and Joe McDonald contributed to this report.
