HONG KONG – U.S. stock indexes lost more ground Wednesday, with declines in the technology, energy and other sectors adding to Wall Street's losses a day after the market’s worst skid in a month.
The S&P 500 fell 0.2% following Tuesday's 2.1% drop. The Nasdaq composite shed 0.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, however, managed a gain of 0.1%.
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The market's latest pullback came as a government report showed job openings in the U.S. fell unexpectedly in July, a sign that hiring could cool in the coming months.
The Labor Department reported that there were 7.7 million open jobs in July, down from 7.9 million in June and the fewest since January 2021. Openings have fallen steadily this year, from nearly 8.8 million in January. But overall, the report was mixed, with hiring having risen last month.
The employment market is being closely watched by investors and the Federal Reserve as a gauge of the economy’s strength. Wall Street traders are anticipating that the Fed will start cutting its benchmark interest rate at its meeting later in September.
The central bank raised rates to a two-decade high in an effort to cool inflation. The rate of inflation has been steadily easing under the weight of the higher rates, while the broader economy has remained relatively strong. The Fed’s goal was to tame inflation without stalling the economy into a recession. A weakening jobs market could raise concerns about slower economic growth ahead, but it could also mean less inflation pressure.
“Job vacancies declined, hires rose and quits were steady,” said Carl Weinberg and Rubeela Farooqi, economists at High Frequency Economics, in a note. “There is no signal here of any sudden collapse of the labor market here or any imminent recession.”
Technology stocks were the biggest weights on the market. Some of the bigger companies in the sector have an outsized impact on the broader market because of their large market values. Nvidia, with its $2.65 trillion market value, fell 1.7%. Apple fell 0.9% and Intel slid 3.3%.
Energy stocks also helped pull the market lower. Exxon Mobil fell 1.2% as the price of U.S. crude oil fell below $70 a barrel.
Several health care companies also slumped. Eli Lilly and Co. fell 1.1%, Elevance Health dropped 2.7% and Centene slumped 8.7%.
Shares of U.S. Steel sank 17.5% after the Biden administration signaled it’s open to formally blocking the company’s acquisition by Nippon Steel of Japan.
All told, the S&P 500 fell 8.86 points to 5,520.07. The Dow rose 38.04 points to 40,974.97. The Nasdaq lost 52 points to close at 17,084.30.
Several other reports this week will help give a clearer picture of the economy for the Fed and Wall Street.
The Institute for Supply Management will release its services sector index for August on Thursday. The services sector is the biggest component of the U.S. economy.
The U.S. will release its monthly jobs report for August on Friday. Economists polled by FactSet expect that report to show that the U.S. added 160,000 jobs, up from 114,000 in July and the unemployment rate edged lower to 4.2% from 4.3%. The report’s strength, or weakness, will likely influence the Fed’s plans for how it trims its benchmark interest rate.
Traders are forecasting the Fed will cut its benchmark rate by 1% by the end of 2024. Such a move would require it to cut the rate by more than the traditional quarter of a percentage point at one of its meetings in the next few months.
Dollar Tree slumped 22.2% for the biggest drop among S&P 500 stocks after the discount retailer slashed its full-year earnings forecast. Hormel Foods fell 6.4% after the maker of Spam trimmed its revenue forecast for the year.
Department store operator Nordstrom slipped 0.2%. Members of the Nordstrom family offered to take the company private for $3.76 billion cash, months after first expressing interest in a buyout.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 3.76% from 3.83% late Tuesday. That’s down from 4.70% in late April, a significant move for the bond market. The yield on the 2-year Treasury, which more closely tracks potential action from the Fed, fell to 3.76% from 3.87%.
The 10-year Treasury and 2-year Treasury are at their least inverted levels in more than two years. An inversion occurs when the shorter duration yield is higher than the longer duration yield. It has historically signaled a recession, though the current inversion has stood for more than two years amid a growing economy.
Markets in Europe and Asia fell.