NEW YORK >> Stocks drifted lower in morning trading on Wall Street today as the market comes off its best month in more than a year.
The S&P 500 fell 0.2% after shifting between small gains and losses. The benchmark index is close to extending a four-week winning streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 24 points, or 0.1% to 36,028 as of 11:02 a.m. Eastern. The Nasdaq fell 0.3%.
Big communication and technology companies were the heaviest weights on the market. Chipmaker Intel fell 3.5% and Google’s parent company, Alphabet, fell 1.2%.
European markets were slightly higher and Asian markets closed mostly lower.
Wall Street had a mixed batch of late earnings reports and financial updates to review. Computer maker Dell fell 5% after giving investors a weaker-than-expected revenue forecast. Beauty products retailer Ulta Beauty rose 10% after reporting results that beat estimates.
Investors were dealing with an otherwise quiet day in a week that included some key economic reports.
Markets marched steadily higher through much of November as investors grew hopeful that the Federal Reserve is finally done raising interest rates in its fight to control inflation. Recent economic data supports that view.
On Thursday, the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation showed a cooling last month. Inflation has been easing overall since the middle of 2022 when the Fed started aggressively raising its benchmark interest rate. That followed mostly encouraging updates on economic growth and consumer confidence that have raised hopes that the Fed will achieve its sought-after “soft landing,” which involves cooling the inflation without throwing the economy into a recession.
A government report today showed that construction spending continued rising in October, topping economists’ forecasts for growth. Wall Street will get several updates next week on the job market, including the government’s closely watched monthly employment report for November.
Wall Street expects the Fed to continue holding its benchmark interest rate steady at its next meeting in December and into early 2024. Investors are also increasingly betting that the central bank will start cutting rates by the middle of 2024.
Treasury yields have been broadly falling amid sentiment that the Fed’s aggressive rate hike policy is finished and potentially heading for a reversal. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which influences mortgage rates, fell to 4.29% from 4.34% late Thursday. It was as high as 5.00% in October.
The yield on the two-year Treasury fell to 4.65% from 4.70% late Thursday.
Falling bond yields have helped relieve pressure on stocks, especially technology stocks.
Oil prices remained relatively steady and have been broadly easing for several months, as have U.S. gasoline prices. That is helping to relieve pressure on American families and businesses from rising prices.
Investors entered December on track to close out the year with solid gains. The S&P 500 is up more than 19% and the Nasdaq composite is up 35% in 2023. Smaller-company stocks have also recently turned higher for the year following the market’s recent rally. The Russell 2000 index is now on up more than 4% for the year.
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