WALL Street stocks slipped on Wednesday ahead of inflation data expected to influence the Federal Reserve’s upcoming policy decisions.
The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index for January, which will be released Thursday, comes on the heels of other pricing data that has topped expectations, dimming investor expectations for imminent Fed interest rate cuts.
“We’ve seen a very strong rally, obviously, and we’re seeing a pause today,” said Angelo Kourkafas of Edward Jones, who cited the PCE report as a source of caution.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.1 per cent to 38,949.02.
The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 0.2 per cent to 5,069.76, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index declined 0.6 per cent to 15,947.74.
Data released Wednesday showed gross domestic product growth in the United States was revised to an annual rate of 3.2 per cent in the final three months of 2023, from an initial estimate of 3.3 per cent released last month.
The shift reflected a downward revision to private inventory investment offset by higher consumer spending.
Among individual companies, Beyond Meat soared more than 30 per cent after announcing cost cuts and changes to its product offerings to improve financial performance.
Briefing.com welcomed the shift, but warned that “it may be coming too late” following the arrival of other competitors.
Dow member UnitedHealth Group fell nearly three per cent following a Wall Street Journal report of a US antitrust investigation into the health giant, an insurer that has other holdings in the vast US health industry. AFP
