NEW YORK (AP) – A record-setting week for Wall Street closed on a quieter note on Friday, as United States (US) stocks drifted around the highs they hit during a worldwide rally the day before.
The S&P 500 slipped 0.2 per cent from its record, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.4 per cent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, meanwhile, added 38 points, or 0.1 per cent, to its all-time high.
FedEx dragged on the market with a drop of 15.2 per cent after its profit and revenue for the latest quarter fell short of analysts’ expectations. It said US customers sent fewer packages through priority services, while it had to contend with higher wages for workers and other costs. FedEx also cut its forecast for revenue growth for its fiscal year.
Helping to limit the market’s losses was Nike, which ran 6.8 per cent higher after it named Elliott Hill as its chief executive. Hill, 60, had spent more than three decades at Nike in various leadership positions before retiring in 2020. Constellation Energy also leaped 22.3 per cent after announcing it will restart the Three Mile Island nuclear plant and sell the power to Microsoft.
Shares in Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) fell 7.8 per cent as its biggest shareholder, former US president Donald Trump, won the freedom to sell his shares if he wants.
Trump owns more than half of the USD2.7 billion company behind the Truth Social platform.
But Trump and other insiders in the company had been unable to cash in because a “lock-up agreement” prevented them from selling any of their shares. Before the lockup expired, Trump said he was in no rush to sell.
TMTG stock has dropped below USD14 from more than USD60 in March, and it’s taken a roller-coaster ride there. Over the last six months, the stock has often swung by at least five per cent in a day, up or down. Homebuilder Lennar fell 5.3 per cent after delivering a mixed earnings report.
Its profit for the latest quarter topped expectations. But it also said it made less in profit on each USD100 of home sales, and it expects that margin to stay flat in the current quarter.
Conditions may be set to improve for homebuilders, though. The Federal Reserve (Fed) earlier this week cut its main interest rate for the first time in more than four years, with more likely to come. That could make mortgages more affordable for home buyers. The cut closed the door on a run where the Fed kept its main interest rate at a two-decade high in hopes of slowing the US economy enough to stamp out high inflation. Now that inflation has fallen from its peak two summers ago, Chair Jerome Powell said the Fed can focus more on keeping the job market solid and the economy out of a recession.
The Fed is still under pressure because hiring has begun to slow under the weight of higher interest rates. Some critics said the central bank waited too long to cut rates and may have damaged the economy. Critics also said the US stock market may be running too hot on the belief the Fed will pull off what seemed nearly impossible earlier: getting inflation down to two per cent without creating a recession.
Chief equity strategist at Stifel Barry Bannister, is still calling for a sharp drop for the S&P 500 by the end of the year. He points to how much faster stock prices have climbed than profits at companies. When stocks have looked this expensive on such measures in the past, he said a recession and sharp downturn for stocks has followed.
He also warned in a report that slowing hiring “is now symbolic of recession risk”.
No economic releases were on the calendar for Friday to show where the economy may be heading. Next week will have preliminary reports on US business activity, the final revision for how quickly the economy grew during the spring and the latest update on spending by US consumers.
