by Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange ended lower on Thursday as investors jittered ahead of Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech on Friday.
The Dow Jones index fell -1.08%, or 373.56 points, to 34,099.42 points.
The broader S&P-500 lost 59.70 points, or -1.35%, to 4,376.31 points.
The Nasdaq Composite fell for its part by 257.06 points (-1.87%) to 13,463.97 points.
The US Federal Reserve Symposium, during which ECB President Christine Lagarde will speak on the state of the European economy, will open on Friday in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Jerome Powell’s speech, which should address the economic outlook, is particularly awaited.
“Although investors want to focus on Nvidia and tech – and it’s been a good year so far – the market is still obsessed with the Fed. It’s still all about what (Jerome) Powell is going to say tomorrow for confuse things, possibly causing investors to sell rather than buy,” said Jake Dollarhide, managing director of Longbow Asset Management in Oklahoma.
Data released by the US Department of Labor on Thursday showed weekly jobless claims fell in the week of August 19 in the US, raising concerns that the Fed could keep rates high for a longer duration.
Investors also digested Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harke, who told CNBC on Thursday that the Fed should keep rates at restrictive levels for a while.
The Fed has been raising interest rates since March 2022 to fight inflation and investors are trying to find out if the US central bank plans further hikes and how long it plans to keep rates high. .
In values, Nvidia reached a high at the start of the session, after publishing results on Wednesday evening well above the consensus.
All of the S&P 500 sector indices ended lower, however. The semiconductor compartment also fell.
Dollar Tree ended in the red after saying it expects full-year earnings to be below estimates.
(With contributions from Amruta Khandekar, Shreyashi Sanyal and Shristi Achar A; Camille Raynaud)
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