Stock market today: Dow closes lower on rate hike jitters, but notches 4th weekly win

By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com — The Dow closed lower Friday, weighed down by a slide in Boeing and UnitedHealth while fresh fears of Federal Reserve rate hikes overshadowed a rally in bank stocks on strong quarterly earnings.

The fell 0.4%, or 143 points, though notched a fourth-straight winning week higher. The fell 0.4% and the fell 0.2%.

Fed Governor Christopher Waller said further rate hikes were still needed to curb inflation, adding that investors shouldn’t “expect rates to fall any time soon.”

The hawkish remarks from Waller pushed the sharply higher as investors upped their bets on further Fed monetary policy tightening ahead just as data showed signs of weakness in the consumer.

The report showed “further slowing in consumer spending, but importantly, not a sharp deterioration,” Morgan Stanley said in a note. “The largest declines were driven by a reversal in gas prices, but there was also broad-based weakness across nearly every category of spending,” it added.

The backdrop of rising rates weighed on tech with Microsoft (NASDAQ:) falling more than 1% followed by Apple Inc (NASDAQ:). But Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:) closed higher.

Financials, however, bucked the trend lower as major Wall Street banks kicked off the quarterly earnings season with mostly better-than-expected results.

JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:) Chase about 7% after reporting first-quarter that beat analyst estimates on the top and bottom lines as net interest margin was bolstered by higher interest rates.

Citigroup Inc (NYSE:) and Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:) also reported better-than-expected results to end the day up 4% and flat, respectively.

The recent bank turmoil did, however, have an impact on banks, with JPMorgan and Wells Fargo reporting a 7% and 8% decline in deposits from a year ago, respectively.

Goldman Sachs (NYSE:) continues the earnings parade from banks next week, though regional banks will also dominate attention, with First Republic also set to report first-quarter results.  

In other news, UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:) fell more than 2% despite lifting its 2023 guidance and delivering first-quarter that topped estimates.

Electric vehicle maker Lucid Group Inc (NASDAQ:), meanwhile reported preliminary first-quarter deliveries of 2,314 vehicles that fell short of estimates of 1,406, sending its shares more than 6% lower.

Rival EV maker Rivian Automotive (NASDAQ:) also dived into the red, down 7%, after Piper Sandler downgraded the stock to Neutral from Buy, citing worries about high costs.

Boeing  (NYSE:), a major Dow component, fell more than 5% after the aircraft maker warned it would have to halt some 737 Max deliveries, citing a new supplier quality problem.