The Wall Street roller coaster remains oiled up and operational as summer hits its stride, with stocks dipping down Wednesday amid a few worrisome signals.
U.S. crude oil futures gushed 2.3% higher, to $122.11 per barrel, after the Energy Information Administration said U.S. crude inventories dropped by 2 million barrels, and gasoline stocks dropped by 800,000 barrels, during the week ended June 3. That helped the energy sector finish ahead of its 10 other counterparts Wednesday, albeit with a mere 0.2% advance.
The market’s overall weakness Wednesday could be chalked up to any number of things. Goldman Sachs says it believes Q4’s year-over-year growth will slow to 1.3% this year, “driven in large part by a substantial fiscal drag and a negative impulse from tighter financial conditions.”
Signs of slowing also are cropping up in what has hitherto been a screaming housing market, with the Mortgage Bankers Association reporting that mortgage application volume dropped 6.5% week-over-week to multidecade lows.
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“Weakness in both purchase and refinance applications pushed the market index down to its lowest level in 22 years,” says Joel Kan, MBA’s associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting.
And it’s possible investors’ attention is on the upcoming consumer price index (CPI) report, due out Friday morning, which could provide guidance on the Federal Reserve’s direction.
“What’s perplexing for investors may be the lack of clarity over the upper end of rate expectations so that they could factor in a price,” says Kunal Sawhney, CEO of Australian research firm Kalkine Group. “It is presently unclear when the Fed would pause the rate hikes; unless, of course, we see definite evidence on the ground that inflation is easing. In this context, the CPI data for May … would be critical.”
The real estate (-2.4%) and materials (-2.1%) sectors led the market lower Wednesday. The S&P 500 was the worst of the major indexes, down 1.1% to 4,115, followed by the Dow Jones Industrial Average (-0.8% to 32,910) and the Nasdaq Composite (-0.7% to 12,086).
Other news in the stock market today:
- The small-cap Russell 2000 retreated 1.5% to 1,891.
- Gold futures edged up 0.2% to settle at $1,856.50 an ounce.
- Bitcoin also took a step back, slipping 2.9% to $30,078.10. (Bitcoin trades 24 hours a day; prices reported here are as of 4 p.m.)
- Altria (MO) fell 8.4% after Morgan Stanley analyst Pamela …….
Source: https://www.kiplinger.com/investing/stocks/604779/stock-market-today-060822