Wall Street’s strong start to the year slows
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street’s strong start to the year slowed on Wednesday.
The S&P 500 slipped 0.3% from its latest all-time high for its first loss in four days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 466 points, or 0.9%, from its own record set the day before, while the Nasdaq composite added 0.2%.
Some of the market’s sharpest drops hit industries that President Donald Trump targeted with criticism on his social media network. Homebuilders fell sharply, for example, after Trump suggested moves to prevent large institutional investors from buying single-family homes, in hopes of making it more affordable for people to buy houses.
The potential removal from the market of some buyers for homes sent D.R. Horton down 3.6% and PulteGroup 3.2% lower. Blackstone, a large investment company, briefly fell more than 9%, before paring its loss to 5.6%.
Moves across the rest of the U.S. stock market were more modest, including for Warner Bros. Discovery after it again rejected a buyout bid from Paramount and told its shareholders to stick with a rival offer from Netflix.
Warner Bros. Discovery rose 0.4%, while Paramount Skydance fell 1% and Netflix added 0.1%.
All told, the S&P 500 fell 23.89 points to 6,920.93. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 466.00 to 48,996.08, and the Nasdaq composite rose 37.10 to 23,584.27.
In the oil market, crude prices fell after Trump said that Venezuela would provide 30 million to 50 million barrels of oil to the United States. A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude dropped 2% to $55.99. Brent crude, the international standard, fell a more modest 1.2% to settle at $59.96 per barrel.
Any additional oil flowing from Venezuela would push down on crude prices by increasing their supplies. Prices for oil have swung this week following Trump’s weekend ouster of the president of Venezuela, which is likely sitting on some of the largest deposits of petroleum in the world.
Oil prices had already fallen back to where they were in 2021, before Trump’s move against Venezuela, because of expectations for plentiful supplies. To pull much more oil from Venezuela’s ground would likely require big investments to improve aging infrastructure.
In the bond market, Treasury yields swung following several mixed reports on the U.S. economy. One of the most impactful said that growth for U.S. retailers, finance companies and other businesses in the services sector accelerated by more last month than economists expected.
Not only that, the report from the Institute for Supply Management also said that a measure of inflation eased to its lowest level since March.
To be sure, company executives are still saying they’re feeling pressures from inflation and an uncertain economy. “In general, business is flat,” one business in the agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting industry told the ISM. “Value brands are still experiencing higher demand. But premium brands struggle to maintain market share.”
But any improvements will nevertheless sound good to officials at the Federal Reserve, who are trying to shore up the job market while pushing down on inflation, which has stubbornly remained above the Fed’s 2% target.
Separate reports Thursday on the job market offered a mixed view. One said that employers cut back on the number of job openings they were advertising, while a second suggested that employers outside of the government added 41,000 more jobs last month than they cut.
A much more comprehensive look at the U.S. job market will arrive on Friday from the U.S. Labor Department.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.14% from 4.18% late Tuesday following the economic reports. But the two-year yield, which more closely tracks expectations for what the Fed will do, was steadier. It held at 3.47%, where it was late Tuesday.
The hope on Wall Street is that the economy remains solid enough to avoid a recession but not so strong that it keeps the Fed from cutting interest rates. The Fed cut its main interest rate three times last year to shore up the slowing job market, but it’s indicated fewer cuts may be ahead because inflation remains high.
Traders are betting on a less than 12% chance that the Fed will cut interest rates at its next meeting later this month. That’s down slightly from the day before, according to data from CME Group.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed among some sharp moves across Europe and Asia.
Indexes dropped 0.7% in London, 0.9% in Hong Kong and 1.1% in Tokyo, while rising 0.6% in Seoul.
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AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.