Written by Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The index posted its biggest weekly percentage gain this year as investors assessed the Federal Reserve's expected direction in interest rates ahead of key inflation data coming out. The Dow and S&P 500 fell on Monday, the first day of trading. In this week of shortened vacations.
Last week, the Fed maintained its guidance for three interest rate cuts this year, sending the S&P 500 and Dow up big and the Nasdaq posting its biggest weekly gain since mid-January.
On Monday, Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsby said the Fed had decided to cut interest rates three times this year, while Fed President Lisa Cook said the central bank needed to proceed with caution when deciding when to start cutting rates. Ta.
“It's a breather,” said Joe Saluzzi, a partner, co-founder and co-head of equity trading at Themis Trading in Chatham. There are many people who do.” New Jersey.
“What the Fed has done is they've laid out everything so far. It's really interesting what they're doing. They're not cutting anything, they're just continuing to postpone. The market tolerates it…but they're doing a good thing.''The job now is to conserve bullets for when you need them. ”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 155.93 points, or 0.40%, to 39,319.97, the S&P 500 fell 6.73 points, or 0.13%, to 5,227.45, and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 7.30 points, or 0.05%, to 16,436.71.
Sales of new single-family homes in the U.S. unexpectedly fell in February as mortgage rates rose during the month, economic data showed, but the trend remained weak amid a chronic shortage of existing homes on the market. It continued to be strong.
The Nasdaq rose slightly due to an improvement in semiconductor stocks. Chip stocks were initially weak after reports over the weekend that China introduced guidelines to phase out U.S. microprocessors supplied by Intel and AMD from government computers and servers.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose 0.5% to a new all-time high, led by Micron Technology's 8.46% rise, while industry giant Nvidia rose 1.89%.
Intel fell 1.15%, while AMD erased previous losses and rose 0.66%.
Expectations for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates in June are rising again, with the market pricing in a 71.9% chance of a rate cut of at least 25 basis points (bp), up from a week ago, according to CME's FedWatch tool. This has increased from about 54.7%. .
The key February reading of the personal consumption expenditure (PCE) price index, the Fed's preferred inflation measure, is expected to be released on Friday, when U.S. markets are closed for the Good Friday holiday.
A high PCE index could dampen the market's optimism for an early rate cut.
Boeing pared gains, ending up 1.39% after announcing a major management shakeup and CEO Dave Calhoun announcing he would step down at the end of 2024.
Walt Disney rose 2.43% after Barclays upgraded the stock from “equal weight” to “overweight.”
On the New York Stock Exchange, declining issues outnumbered advancing issues by a ratio of 1.03 to 1, and on the Nasdaq, declining issues outnumbered advancing issues by a ratio of about 1.08 to 1.
The S&P 500 recorded 31 new highs and 2 new lows in 52 weeks, and the Nasdaq recorded 107 new highs and 96 new lows.
(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by David Gregorio)
