Dow Jones

U.S. Stocks Fall Broadly Ahead Of Key Fed Decision On Rates

By Associated Press
September 20, 2022

More than 90% of stocks and every sector in the benchmark index lost ground as traders wait to see how far the Fed will raise interest rates.

Stocks fell broadly in midday trading on Wall Street Tuesday ahead of a key decision on interest rates by the Federal Reserve.

The S&P 500 index fell 1% as of 11:46 a.m. Eastern. More than 90% of stocks and every sector in the benchmark index lost ground as traders wait to see how far the Fed will raise interest rates at its meeting that ends Wednesday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 312 points, or 1%, to 30,706 and the Nasdaq fell 0.5%.

U.S. crude oil prices fell 2.1% and weighed down energy stocks. Hess fell 1.7%.

Bond yields edged higher. The yield on the 2-year Treasury, which tends to follow expectations for Fed action, rose to 3.97% from 3.95% late Monday and is hovering around its highest levels since 2007.

The 10-year yield, which influences mortgage rates, rose to 3.57% from 3.52% and is trading at its highest levels since 2011.

Stocks have been slumping and Treasury yields rising as the Fed raises the cost of borrowing money in hopes of slowing down the hottest inflation in four decades. The central bank’s aggressive rate hikes have been making markets jittery, especially as Fed officials assert their determination to keep raising rates until they are sure inflation is coming under control.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell bluntly warned in a speech last month that the rate hikes would “bring some pain.”

“He has done everything he possibly can to signal that it’s going to be another aggressive move,” said Liz Young, head of investment strategy at SoFi. “He’s been clear as a bell about what they’ve been focused on.”

The Fed is expected to raise its key short-term rate by a substantial three-quarters of a point for the third time at its meeting on Wednesday. That would lift its benchmark rate, which affects many consumer and business loans, to a range of 3% to 3.25%, the highest level in 14 years, and up from zero at the start of the year.

Wall Street is worried that the rate hikes could go too far in slowing economic growth and push the economy into a recession. Those concerns have been heightened by data showing that the U.S. economy is already slowing and by companies warning about the impact of inflation and supply chain problems to their operations.

Ford fell 9.6% after slashing its third-quarter earnings forecast because a parts shortage will leave it with as many as 45,000 vehicles unfinished on its lots when the quarter ends Sept. 30. Last week, FedEx and General Electric warned investors about damage to their operations from inflation.

The U.S. isn’t alone in suffering from hot inflation or dealing with the impact of efforts to fight high prices.

Sweden’s central bank on Tuesday raised its key interest rate by a full percentage point to 1.75%, catching almost everyone off guard as it scrambles to bring down inflation that was measured at 9% in August.

Consumer inflation in Japan jumped in August to 3%, its highest level since November 1991 but well below the 8% plus readings in the U.S. and Europe. The Bank of Japan is set to have a two-day monetary policy meeting later this week, although analysts expect the central bank to stick to its easy monetary policy.

Min Joo Kang, senior economist, South Korea and Japan, at ING Economics noted inflation remained relatively low in Japan. Energy prices were rising, but not as much as in the U.S. or some parts of Europe. Housing prices haven’t risen and household income have remained stagnant.

Rate decisions from Norway, Switzerland and the Bank of England are next.

Markets in Europe were mostly lower, while markets in Asia gained ground

Additional reporting by the Associated Press.

: newsy.com

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U.S. Markets Sink Ahead Of Another Expected Interest Rate Hike

By Associated Press
September 19, 2022

Futures for the Dow Jones industrials and for the S&P 500 each tumbled nearly 1% Monday morning.

Wall Street pointed lower before the opening bell Monday ahead of another expected large interest rate hike from the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Futures for the Dow Jones industrials and for the S&P 500 each tumbled 0.9%.

Britain was observing a day of mourning for Queen Elizabeth II. Japan’s markets were closed for a holiday.

Germany’s DAX lost 0.4%, while the CAC 40 in Paris shed 1%.

Markets have been on edge because of stubbornly high inflation and the increases in interest rates being used to fight it. The fear is that the Fed and other central banks might overshoot their policy targets, triggering a recession.

Most economists forecast that the Fed will jack up its primary lending rate another three-quarters of a point when the central bank’s leaders meet this week.

“Fact is, hawkish expectations built on the ‘hot under the hood’ U.S. inflation print means that markets have good reason to be braced for headwinds amid prospects of higher (for longer) rates; and arguably ‘higher for longer’ USD (dollar) as well,” Vishnu Varathan of Mizuho Bank said in a commentary.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1% to 18,565.97 while the Shanghai Composite index shed 0.4% to 3,115.60. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gave up 0.3% to 6,719.90. In Seoul, the Kospi sank 1.1% to 2,355.66.

Japan’s central bank meets Wednesday and Thursday amid rising pressure to counter a sharp decline in the yen’s value against the dollar. That has raised costs for businesses and consumers, who must pay more for imports of oil, gas and other necessities.

However the Bank of Japan has held firm so far in maintaining an ultralow benchmark rate of minus 0.1% in hopes of stimulating investment and spending.

On Friday, a stark warning from FedEx about rapidly worsening economic trends elevated anxiety in markets. The S&P 500 fell 0.7%, while the Nasdaq lost almost 1%. The Dow lost almost half percent.

The S&P 500 sank 4.8% for the week, with much of the loss coming from a 4.3% rout on Tuesday following a surprisingly hot report on inflation.

All the major indexes have now posted losses four out of the past five weeks.

FedEx sank 21.4% for its biggest single-day sell-off on record Friday after warning investors that its fiscal first-quarter profit will likely fall short of forecasts because of a drop-off in business. The package delivery service is also shuttering storefronts and corporate offices and expects business conditions to further weaken.

Higher interest rates tend to weigh on stocks, especially the pricier technology sector. The housing sector is also hurting as interest rates rise. Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates climbed above 6% last week for the first time since the housing crash of 2008. The higher rates could make an already tight housing market even more expensive for American homebuyers.

But the rate hikes have yet to cool the economy substantially.

Last week, the U.S. reported that consumer prices rose 8.3% through August compared with last year, the job market is still red-hot and consumers continue to spend, all of which give ammunition to Fed officials who say the economy can tolerate more rate hikes.

In other trading Monday, U.S. benchmark crude lost $2.01 to $83.10 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It edged up 1 cent to $85.11 per barrel on Friday.

Brent crude oil gave up $1.93 to $89.42 per barrel.

The dollar strengthened to 143.57 Japanese yen from 142.94 yen. The euro slipped to 99.93 cents from $1.0014.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.

: newsy.com

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Stocks Drift Mostly Lower On Wall Street, Extending Losses

By Associated Press
September 6, 2022

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 0.3% in afternoon trading on Tuesday, while the Nasdaq fell 0.4%.

Stocks drifted mostly lower on Wall Street, extending the market’s losses into a holiday-shortened week.

The S&P 500 fell 0.3% as of 12:28 p.m. Eastern. It has bounced between a gain of 0.5% and a loss of 1% throughout the day and is coming off its third losing week in a row. Markets in the U.S. were closed on Monday for the Labor Day holiday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 99 points, or 0.3%, to 31,218 and the Nasdaq fell 0.4%.

Health care stocks were among the biggest gainers. Eli Lilly rose 2.4%. Communication stocks fell broadly and tempered gains elsewhere in the market. Netflix slipped 3.5%.

Bed Bath & Beyond fell 16.6% following the death of its chief financial officer. The company has been suffering from a prolonged sales slump and executive turnover.

The company that wants to take Trump Media public, Digital World Acquisition, plunged 14.7% following reports it didn’t receive enough shareholder support for an extension to close the deal.

ADT jumped 13.5% after State Farm said it was taking a 15% stake in the home security company.

Markets have been slipping in recent weeks and shedding much of the gains made in July and early August as inflation remains hot and the Federal Reserve stays on track to continue raising interest rates to try and tame stubbornly persistent high prices. The big concern is that the Fed might go too far in raising rates and slam the brakes too hard on an already slowing economy, potentially causing a recession.

Wall Street has been closely watching economic data for clues that inflation might be easing, which traders hope will give the Fed a reason to ease up on rate hikes. The Fed has already raised interest rates four times this year and is expected to raise short-term rates by another 0.75 percentage points at its next meeting later this month, according to CME Group.

In recent weeks, the market has wiped out much of the gains it made in July and early August as traders worried that the Fed would not let up anytime soon on raising interest rates to bring down the highest inflation in decades. The Fed has made clear that it intends to keep raising interest rates until it is sure that inflation is easing.

Bond yields rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which influences interest rates on mortgages and other loans, rose to 3.34% from 3.19% late Thursday. The two-year Treasury yield, which tends to track expectations for Fed action, rose to 3.51% from 3.39%.

Markets in Asia were mostly higher. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.4% after China promised Monday to accelerate easier lending and other policies to shore up economic growth that sank to 2.5% over a year earlier in the first half of 2022, less than half the official annual target.

European markets were mostly lower.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.

: newsy.com

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Stocks Slip On Wall Street, Erasing Weekly Gains For S&P 500

By Associated Press

and Newsy Staff
August 17, 2022

Pricey technology companies and retailers had some of the biggest losses. Utilities and energy stocks held up better than the broader market.

Stocks are moving broadly lower on Wall Street in afternoon trading Wednesday, led by drops in big technology companies and erasing the S&P 500’s gains for the week.

The S&P 500 fell 0.6% as of 2:07 p.m. Eastern. Trading has been choppy throughout the week as the benchmark index comes off a four-week winning streak.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 124 points, or 0.4%, to 34,025 and the Nasdaq fell 1.1%.

Small-company stocks fell more sharply than the rest of the market. The Russell 2000 fell 1.6%.

Pricey technology companies and retailers had some of the biggest losses. Utilities and energy stocks held up better than the broader market.

Wall Street was absorbing a mix of retail updates that showed inflation pressure continues to affect businesses and consumers, but also shows that spending remains strong.

Target fell 2.3% after reporting a nearly 90% plunge in second quarter profits as it was forced to slash prices to clear unwanted inventories. The retailer warned earlier this summer that it was canceling orders from suppliers and aggressively cutting prices because of a pronounced spending shift by Americans as the pandemic eased.

Children’s clothing and accessories chain Children’s Place fell 12.4% after reporting a surprise second-quarter loss as it faced supply chain problems and pressure from inflation.

Bond yields rose significantly. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 2.89% from 2.81% late Tuesday.

Sales at U.S. retailers were unchanged last month, according to the Commerce Department, and economists had expected a slight increase in July. Part of the weakness came from a 1.8% drop in gas sales, reflecting lower prices at the pump.

Wall Street has been closely reviewing the latest economic data and corporate updates to get a better sense of how inflation is affecting businesses and consumers and whether the hottest inflation in 40 years is peaking or beginning to cool. Investors are also monitoring inflation to determine how much further central banks have to go in their fight against higher prices.

Britain’s inflation rate rose to a new 40-year high of 10.1% in July, a faster pace than in the U.S. and Europe as climbing food prices in the United Kingdom tightened a cost-of-living squeeze fueled by the soaring cost of energy. Inflation pressures prompted the Bank of England to boost its key interest rate by half a percentage point this month, the biggest of six consecutive increases since December.

The Federal Reserve has been raising interest rates in order to slow the economy and temper inflation, but investors remain concerned that it could hit the brakes too hard and send the economy into a recession. The Fed in July raised its benchmark interest rate by three-quarters of a point for a second-straight time. Wall Street will get more details on the process behind that decision when the Fed releases minutes from that meeting later Wednesday.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.

: newsy.com

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J&J To End Sales Of Baby Powder With Talc Globally Next Year

By Associated Press

and Newsy Staff
August 12, 2022

J&J faced thousands of lawsuits alleging its talcum powder caused users to develop ovarian cancer.

Johnson & Johnson is pulling baby powder containing talc worldwide next year after it did the same in the U.S. and Canada amid thousands of lawsuits claiming it caused cancer.

Talc will be replaced by cornstarch, the company said.

The company has faced litigation alleging its talcum powder caused users to develop ovarian cancer, through use for feminine hygiene, or mesothelioma, a cancer that strikes the lungs and other organs.

J&J insists, and the overwhelming majority of medical research on talc indicates, that the talc baby powder is safe and doesn’t cause cancer.

However, demand for the company’s baby powder fell off, and J&J removed the talc-based product in most of North America in 2020.

The company did so after it saw demand drop due to “misleading talc litigation advertising that caused global confusion and unfounded concern,” about product safety a company spokeswoman said.

J&J said the change announced late Thursday will simplify its product selection and meet evolving global trends.

Last October, J&J said a separate subsidiary it created to manage talc litigation claims had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

J&J said then that it funded the subsidiary, named LTL Management, and established a $2 billion trust to pay claims the bankruptcy court determines that it owes.

The health care giant also said last fall that it will turn its consumer health business — which sells the baby powder, Band-Aids and other products — into a separate publicly traded company. The part of the company selling prescription drugs and medical devices will keep the J&J name.

Shares of Johnson & Johnson, based in New Brunswick, New Jersey, rose slightly before the opening bell Friday. The stock has performed better than the Dow Jones Industrial Average, of which J&J is a member, for most of the year.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.

: newsy.com

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U.S. Stocks Rise As More Big Companies Report Solid Earnings

By Associated Press
August 3, 2022

Oil prices are steady after the OPEC oil cartel and its allies decided to boost production in September by a much slower pace than in previous months.

Stocks rose in afternoon trading on Wall Street Wednesday as investors reviewed another, mostly encouraging, batch of earnings from several big companies.

The S&P 500 rose 1.3% as of 12:01 p.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 330 points, or 1%, to 32,732 and the Nasdaq rose 2.1%. The gains helped indexes recover most of this week’s losses. Technology companies, retailers and communications companies were some of the biggest winners. Sectors considered less risky, such as utilities and consumer goods makers, lagged the broader market.

Wall Street also received a surprisingly good report on a key part of the economy. The services sector, which makes up the bulk of the U.S. economy, unexpectedly grew in July, according to the Institute for Supply Management.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 2.78% from 2.73% late Tuesday.

Earnings remain in focus this week as investors parse the latest results and statements from companies to better understand how inflation is affecting businesses and consumers.

Drugstore chain CVS rose 5.5% after reporting solid financial results and raising its profit forecast for the year. Starbucks rose 3.2% after also reporting solid financial results. Nearly three-quarters of companies within the benchmark S&P 500 have reported earnings for the latest quarter and the results have mostly beaten analysts’ forecasts.

Several companies, though, have slipped amid disappointing results. Taco Bell owner Yum Brands fell 2.6% following a weak earnings report and online dating service company Match Group lost about a fifth of its value after giving investors a weak financial forecast.

PayPal jumped 9.6% on a report that activist investor Elliott Management has taken a large stake in the payment company.

Robinhood Markets, whose stock trading app helped bring a new generation of investors to the market, rose 14.2% following an announcement that it’s cutting nearly a quarter of its workforce. Crashing cryptocurrency prices and a turbulent stock market have kept more customers off its app.

Oil prices remained mostly steady following OPEC’s decision to boost production in September at a much slower pace than previous months.

Markets are also watching for potential economic fallout from China after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. China claims self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory, and banned imports of Taiwanese citrus fruits and frozen fish in retaliation for Pelosi’s visit. But it has avoided disrupting the flow of computer chips and other industrial goods, a step that could jolt the global economy.

Upcoming data on the jobs market could help investors determine how the Federal Reserve will move ahead with its interest rate policy, which has been aggressive in an effort to try and tame inflation. U.S. jobless claims numbers for last week will be released Thursday, and the government issues its July jobs report on Friday.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.

: newsy.com

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How Jack Welch’s Reign at G.E. Gave Us Elon Musk’s Twitter Feed

When Jack Welch died on March 1, 2020, tributes poured in for the longtime chief executive of General Electric, whom many revered as the greatest chief executive of all time.

David Zaslav, the C.E.O. of Warner Bros. Discovery and a Welch disciple, remembered him as an almost godlike figure. “Jack set the path. He saw the whole world. He was above the whole world,” Mr. Zaslav said. “What he created at G.E. became the way companies now operate.”

Mr. Zaslav’s words were meant as unequivocal praise. During Mr. Welch’s two decades in power — from 1981 to 2001 — he turned G.E. into the most valuable company in the world, groomed a flock of protégés who went on to run major companies of their own, and set the standard by which other C.E.O.s were measured.

Yet a closer examination of the Welch legacy reveals that he was not simply the “Manager of the Century,” as Fortune magazine crowned him upon his retirement.

broken up for good.

the fateful decision to redesign the 737 — a plane introduced in the 1960s — once more, rather than lose out on a crucial order with American Airlines. That decision set in motion the flawed development of the 737 Max, which crashed twice in five months, killing 346 people. And while a number of factors contributed to those tragedies, they were ultimately the product of a corporate culture that cut corners in pursuit of short-term financial gains.

For two years, the stock market has been largely able to ignore the lived reality of Americans during the pandemic — the mounting coronavirus cases, the loss of lives and livelihoods, the lockdowns — because of underlying policies that kept it buoyant.

Investors can now say goodbye to all that.

Come 2022, the Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates to fight inflation, and government programs meant to stimulate the economy during the pandemic will have ended. Those policy changes will cause investors, businesses and consumers to behave differently, and their actions will eventually take some air out of the stock market, according to analysts.

“It’s going to be the first time in almost two years that the Fed’s incremental decisions might force investors or consumers to become a little more wary,” said David Schawel, the chief investment officer at Family Management Corporation, a wealth management firm in New York.

At year’s end, the overarching view on Wall Street is that 2022 will be a bumpier ride, if not quite a roller coaster. In a recent note, analysts at J.P. Morgan said that they expected inflation — currently at 6.8 percent — to “normalize” in coming months, and that the surge of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus was unlikely to lower economic growth.

16 percent gain during the first year of the pandemic. The index hit 70 new closing highs in 2021, second only to 1995, when there were 77, said Howard Silverblatt, an analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices. Shares on Friday fell slightly.

The market continued to rise through political, social and economic tensions: On Jan. 7, the day after a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol, the S&P set another record. Millions of amateur investors, stuck at home during the pandemic, piled into the stock market, too, buying up shares of all kinds of companies — even those that no one expects will earn money, like the video game retailer GameStop.

Wall Street also remained bullish on business prospects in China despite Beijing’s growing tension with the United States and tightening grip on Chinese companies. Waves of coronavirus variants, from Delta to Omicron, and a global death toll that crossed five million did not deter the stock market’s rise; its recovery after each bout of panic was faster than the previous one.

“2021 was a terrific year for the equity markets,” said Anu Gaggar, the global investment strategist for Commonwealth Financial Network, in an emailed note. “Between federal stimulus keeping the economy going, easy monetary policy from the Fed keeping markets liquid and interest rates low, and the ongoing medical improvement leading to surprising growth, markets have been in the best of all possible worlds.”

400 private companies raised $142.5 billion in 2021. But investors had sold off many of the newly listed stocks on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq by the end of the year. The Renaissance IPO exchange-traded fund, which tracks initial public offerings, is down about 9 percent for the year.

Shares of Oatly, which makes an oat-based alternative to dairy milk, soared 30 percent when the company went public in May but are now trading 60 percent lower than their opening-day closing price. The stock-trading start-up Robinhood and the dating app Bumble, two other big public debuts, were down about 50 percent for 2021.

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