Wall Street down pending Fed minutes

Updated July 5

(New York) The New York Stock Exchange ended slightly lower on Wednesday, surprised by the minutes of the last Fed meeting which confirmed probable additional rate hikes this year to control inflation.

The Dow Jones index fell 0.38% to 34,288.64 points, the tech-heavy NASDAQ fell 0.18% to 13,791.65 points and the S&P 500 fell 0.20% to 4446, 82 dots.

“Virtually all participants agree that additional rate hikes on federal funds should be in order,” report the “minutes” of the June 14 meeting of the Federal Reserve Monetary Committee (FOMC). This confirms what Jerome Powell, Chairman of the Fed, repeatedly implied before Congress recently.

“The minutes revealed nothing new,” said Spartan Capital’s Peter Cardillo. He noted, however, that central bank economists believe a “mild recession” was in the cards for the end of the year.

The analyst said Wall Street’s lack of enthusiasm was more a reflection of profit taking as many stocks hit all-time highs on Monday during a session shortened due to Independence Day on Tuesday.

This was the case for the number one retailer Walmart (-0.06% to 158.11 dollars), but also McDonald’s (+0.70% to 296.89 dollars) or General Electric (+0.35 % at $108.66).

Bond yields on 10-year Treasuries rose sharply to expect a three-month high of 3.93%, which did little to weaken stock prices.

Another factor that kept the indices slightly in the red, service activity in China marked time in June.

The Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) released by media group Caixin and S&P Global showed that activity in services in China slowed its growth in June to one of the slowest paces in the year, the latest sign of the country’s post-COVID-19 recovery running out of steam.

The index stood at 53.9 points last month, a slowdown from 57.1 in May.

The disappointing data comes amid a tense trade environment between Beijing and Washington, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that the Biden administration is preparing to restrict China’s access to remote computing services (cloud). Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is due to travel to China from Thursday to Sunday to meet with Chinese officials.

Rivian puts the turbo

On the stock side, electric vehicle maker Rivian, which soared more than 17% in the last session on Monday, gained 4.45% as the group reported a jump in vehicle deliveries in previous quarter that exceeded the 11,000 predicted by analysts.

Automobile giant General Motors ended up 1.16% after announcing a 19% jump in car sales in the second quarter.

Vaccine maker Moderna gained 1.49% to $123.54. The American laboratory has signed a memorandum of understanding with China to produce drugs there for the Chinese market, he announced on Wednesday. The investment could amount to a billion dollars, according to a Chinese media.

Asked by AFP, Moderna – which has developed one of the very first messenger RNA vaccines against COVID-19 – did not confirm the amount of the investment. He said, however, that a memorandum of understanding had indeed been signed.

Express carrier UPS dropped 2% as wage talks stalled with the drivers’ union, raising the threat of a strike.

Shares of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase slid 1.98% after an analyst raised doubts about the company’s profitability as the US securities regulator, the SEC, sues the platform. justice for non-compliance with the regulations.