Wall Street flat after weak labor market data, dovish Fed comments

Reuters

Wall Street flat after weak labor market data, dovish Fed comments

2024 9월 4, 오후 6:57 GMT

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S&P 500 and Nasdaq flat in choppy trading

Job openings indicate labor market easing

Nvidia edges lower after report of DOJ subpoena

Dollar Tree dives after cutting annual forecasts

AMD rises after hiring former Nvidia executive Keith Strier

Updates to 2:30 p.m. EDT

By Chibuike Oguh

NEW YORK Sept 4 (Reuters) -U.S. stocks were mostly flat in choppy trading on Wednesday following labor market data and comments from a Federal Reserve official that bolster the case for an interest rate cut.

Labor Department data showed that U.S. job openings fell to a 3-1/2-year low in July, indicating continued easing of labor market tightness that could strengthen the Fed's hand to begin cutting rates at its next meeting later this month.

The benchmark S&P 500, Nasdaq and Dow indexes were flat in choppy trading, with utilities stocks leading the gainers while energy and healthcare equities were the main drag. Nine out of 11 S&P 500 sectors were trading down.

"For me, even though the index is flat or down a couple of basis points, actually the market is up," said Eric Beyrich, co-chief investment officer at Sound Income Strategies. "The data always gets messed up, if you will, by the large cap tech companies which drive everything."

Shares of Nvidia NVDA.O, which suffered a massive $279 billion drop in market value on Tuesday, were up 0.2%. The U.S. Department of Justice sent a subpoena to the AI chip firm as it deepens its probe into the company's antitrust practices, according to a report.

Other megacap growth stocks including Apple AAPL.O slipped 1% and Amazon.com AMZN.O fell 1.8%. Tesla TSLA.O was up nearly 5%.

Raphael Bostic, Atlanta Fed president, said on Wednesday the central bank must not keep interest rates too high much longer or it risks causing too much harm to employment. He added that waiting until inflation falls back to the Fed's 2% goal before cutting rates "would risk labor market disruptions that could inflict unnecessary pain and suffering."

In Tuesday's session, all three Wall Street indexes slumped to their biggest one-day loss since early August as investors dumped technology-related stocks in a dour start to September - which is historically the worst month for equities.

"Utility stocks are up today because of weak data in jobs that just bolsters the case that when the Fed meets in almost a few weeks they are going to cut rates by at least 25 basis points," Beyrich added.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 3.38 points, or 0.00%, to 40,936.13, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 5.11 points, or 0.09%, to 5,523.82 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC lost 1.55 points, or 0.00%, to 17,135.93.

The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index .SOX rebounded from its biggest one-day drop since the COVID-19 pandemic in the previous session and was up 0.72%.

Advanced Micro Devices AMD.O rose 3.5% after it named former Nvidia executive Keith Strier as its senior vice president of global AI markets.

Zscaler ZS.O forecast fiscal 2025 revenue and profit below estimates, sending its shares down nearly 18%. Dollar Tree DLTR.O slumped 24% after the discount store operator trimmed its annual sales and profit forecasts.

September is the worst month for S&P 500 on average since 1928 https://tmsnrt.rs/3zea03d

JOLTS https://reut.rs/4cYB3xo

Reporting by Chibuike Oguh in New York; additional reporting by Johann M Cherian, Bansari Mayur Kamdar and Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru
Editing by Matthew Lewis

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