DOW dips, rally takes breather as Cisco and Walmart drag…..
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down slightly on Thursday, with pressure from Cisco and Walmart after disappointing forecasts. Shares of Cisco Systems tumbled as the communications and networking technology company cut its full-year revenue and profit forecasts on slowing demand for its networking equipment. Also in technology, Palo Alto Networks shares fell after its forecast late Wednesday for second-quarter billings that missed expectations.
Walmart shares sank a day after touching a record high. The retail giant said U.S. consumers were spending cautiously because of inflation, even as it raised its annual forecast for sales and profit. This helped push the broader S&P 500 consumer staples index <.SPLRCS> lower and weighed on other retailers including Dollar General and Dollar Tree .Also, Target gave back some gains from the previous session in which it soared 17.8% after providing a bullish strong holiday-quarter outlook.
Wall Street’s three main indexes had advanced in the four prior sessions, with data signaling cooling U.S. inflation and fueling hopes the U.S. Federal Reserve is done hiking interest rates. Also, passage this week of a stop-gap bill to avert a government shutdown eased some nerves. After days of gains, investors took the opportunity to take a step back..
According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 5.64 points, or 0.13%, to end at 4,508.52 points, while the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> gained 10.75 points, or 0.08%, to 14,114.59. The Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> fell 44.12 points, or 0.13%, to 34,944.65.
Keeping declines in check, U.S. Treasury yields fell after a Labor Department’s report showed weekly jobless claims had risen more than expected, cementing bets that the Fed will not need to raise rates further. While money markets have fully priced in a probability that the Fed will hold rates steady in December, they see about a 62% chance of a rate cut in May of at least 25 basis points, according to CME Group’s Fed Watch tool.
Among individual stocks, Macy’s shares rallied after the department store operator’s quarterly sales beat analysts’ estimates.
Reporting by Sinéad Carew, Caroline Valetkevitch in New York, Shristi Achar A and Amruta Khandekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel, Pooja Desai and David Gregorio
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