Stock Market Today: Dow Falls as Hawkish Fed Minutes Keep Tech Sidelined
2022.04.06 23:51
By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com — The Dow slipped Wednesday, as tech was pressured by rising Treasury yields after the minutes from the Federal Reserve’s March meeting signaled that central bank members were in favor of stepping up the pace of the monetary policy tightening next month.
Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.42%, or 144 points, the S&P 500 fell 1%, and the Nasdaq fell 2.2%.
The Fed is “well placed to begin the process of reducing the size of the balance sheet as early as after the conclusion of its upcoming meeting in May,” the Fed minutes showed on Wednesday.
Under the plan, the Fed would allow about $60 billion in Treasury securities and about $35 billion in agency MBS to roll off its balance sheet, which current stands at nearly $9 trillion.
Fed members also discussed the prospect of 50-basis-point rate hikes at one or more up coming meetings, but this was less hawkish than market expectations of 50 basis points at most meetings.
“The commentary from the minutes on the 50 basis points hikes was maybe a little less hawkish because we had seen the market price in 50 basis point at several of the meetings or most of the meetings for the rest of the year, but they [Fed members] only discussed one or more 50 basis hikes,” John Luke Tyner, portfolio manager at Aptus Capital Advisors, said in an interview with Investing.com on Wednesday.
“I think that also maybe led to a little bit of softness in the front end of the yield curve,” Tyner added.
The 10-year yield topped 2.6% to surged to more than three-year highs, while the 2-year yield, which is more sensative to rate hikes, cut gains to end the day lower.
Growth sectors of the market like tech, which are less attractive in periods of rising rates and inflation, continued to creep lower, pressuring the broader market.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) led big tech lower, down more than 3%, while Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) fell more than 1%.
Chip stocks also struggled, pressured by a nearly 6% slump in Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), and weakness in Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC).
Intel fell 1%, however, after the chipmaker said it would end or scale back operations in Russia following the latter’s invasion of Ukraine.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) fell more than 3% as electric vehicle reportedly doesn’t expect to resume production at its Shanghai factory until at least Friday following a Covid-led shutdown.
On the deal making front, JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ:JBLU) fell more than 8% a day after the airline’s $3.6 billion takeover bid for rival Spirit Airlines (NYSE:SAVE).
In other news, Tilray (NASDAQ:TLRY) bucked the broader trend lower, rising more than 3% after delivering an unexpected profit in the third quarter and announced that its subsidiary Manitoba Harvest’s hemp powders would be available at more than 300 Whole Foods Market locations across the U.S.
