U.S. stocks fell on Thursday, just a day after rising on expectations that the Federal Reserve would soon lower interest rates. Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell said, "We're getting closer to the point at which it will be appropriate to reduce our policy rate," even though we're not quite there yet.
Weak data suggested that the Fed might have missed its window to do so before undermining the expansion of the economy.
US Indices performance
S&P 500
Following news that U.S. manufacturing activity is continuing to decline and is doing so more quickly, the S&P 500 fell 1.4 per cent.
High interest rates have hurt the manufacturing sector, and the Institute for Supply Management's report is suffocating early morning gains in the US stock market.
Without Meta Platforms, the S&P 500 would have fallen even further on Thursday. The business that powers Instagram and Facebook increased 4.8 per cent after exceeding market expectations in terms of revenue and profit for the most recent quarter.
The Nasdaq composite
The Nasdaq composite fell 2.3 per cent, after opening at 17,647.03 points and touching a high level of the day at 17,791.58 points. The index at a point was drowned to a low of 17,051.42 points, which amounts to 3.22 per cent.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average
On the other hand, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 494 points, a 1.2 per cent downward move, after falling more than 700 points earlier in the day and touching a low of 40,098.57 points, a total loss of 744.22 points, a sharp decline of 1.82 per cent in the trading session.
However, in its haste to contain inflation, the Fed may have kept rates too high for too long, as the data also suggested. For about a year now, the Federal Reserve has maintained its main interest rate at a two-decade high, which has increased the cost of borrowing money to pay for a house, a car, or anything else on credit cards. Furthermore, it might take several months or even a year for the economy to fully benefit from a rate cut.
