An early rebound for U.S. stocks on Thursday petered out by the end of the day, leaving indexes close to flat.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 edged down 0.1% after Wednesday’s tumble of 2.9% when the Federal Reserve said it might deliver fewer cuts to interest rates next year than earlier thought. The index had been up as much as 1.1% in the morning.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose less than 0.1% after Wednesday’s drop of 2.6%, while the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.1%.
This week’s struggles have taken some of the enthusiasm out of the market, which critics had been warning was overly buoyant and would need everything to go correctly to justify the high prices. But indexes remain near their records, and the S&P 500 is still on track for one of its best years of the millennium with a gain of 23%.
Traders are now expecting the Federal Reserve to deliver just one or maybe two cuts to interest rates next year, according to data from CME Group. Some are even betting on none. A month ago, the majority saw at least two cuts in 2025 as a safe bet.
Wall Street loves lower interest rates because they give the economy a boost and goose prices for investments, but they can also provide fuel for inflation.
Micron Technology was one of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500 on Thursday. It fell 16.2% despite reporting stronger profit for the latest quarter than expected.
The computer memory company’s revenue fell short of Wall Street’s forecasts, and Chief Executive Sanjay Mehrotra said it expects demand from consumers to remain weaker in the near term. It gave a forecast for revenue in the current quarter that fell well short of what analysts were expecting.
Lamb Weston, which makes French fries and other potato products, dropped 20.1% after falling short of analysts’ expectations for profit and revenue in the latest quarter. It also cut its financial targets for the fiscal year, saying demand for frozen potatoes is continuing to soften, particularly outside North America. The company replaced its chief executive.
Such losses helped overshadow a 14.7% jump for Darden Restaurants, the company behind Olive Garden and other chains. It delivered profit for the latest quarter that edged past analysts’ expectations. The operator of LongHorn Steakhouses also gave a forecast for revenue for this fiscal year that topped analysts’.
Accenture rose 7.1% after the professional services company likewise topped expectations for profit in the latest quarter. CEO Julie Sweet said Accenture saw growth around the world, and the company raised its forecast for revenue this fiscal year.
Amazon shares added 1.3%, even as workers at seven of its facilities went on strike Thursday in the middle of the online retail giant’s busiest time of the year. Amazon says it doesn’t expect its operations to be affected.
In the bond market, yields were mixed a day after shooting higher on expectations that the Fed would deliver fewer cuts to rates in 2025. Reports on the U.S. economy came in mixed.
One showed the overall economy grew at a 3.1% annualized rate during the summer, faster than earlier thought. The economy has remained remarkably resilient even though the Fed held its main interest rate at a two-decade high for a while before beginning to cut rates in September.
A separate report showed that fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, an indication that the job market also remains solid. But a third report said manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic region is unexpectedly contracting again despite economists’ expectations for growth.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.57% from 4.52% late Wednesday and from less than 4.20% earlier this month.
But the two-year yield, which more closely tracks expectations for action by the Fed in the near term, eased back to 4.31% from 4.35%.
The rise in longer-term yields has put pressure on the housing market by keeping mortgage rates higher. Home builder Lennar fell 5.2% after reporting weaker profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
CEO Stuart Miller said that “the housing market that appeared to be improving as the Fed cut short-term interest rates proved to be far more challenging as mortgage rates rose” through the quarter.
“Even while demand remained strong, and the chronic supply shortage continued to drive the market, our results were driven by affordability limitations from higher interest rates,” he said.
A report on Thursday may have offered some encouragement for the housing industry. It showed a pickup in sales of previously occupied homes.
All told, the S&P 500 slipped 5.08 points to 5,867.08. The Dow edged up 15.37 points to 42,342.24, and the Nasdaq composite lost 19.92 points to close at 19,372.77.
In stock markets abroad, London’s FTSE 100 fell 1.1% after the Bank of England paused its cuts to rates and kept its main interest rate unchanged on Thursday. The move comes as inflation there moved further above the central bank’s 2% target rate, while the British economy is flat at best.
The Bank of Japan also kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged, and Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.7%. Indexes likewise sank across much of the rest of Asia and Europe.
Choe writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.
