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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading on February 29, 2024 in New York City.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
The S&P 500 fell on Friday as investors tried to wrap up a volatile week after a string of fresh inflation data.
The broad market index lost 0.6%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 123 points, or 0.3%. The Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.7%.
High-flying tech darling Nvidia dipped more than 1%. The decline put the stock down 0.7% for the week. That would mark its first weekly decline in 10 weeks.
Software provider Adobe dropped 13% on weak sales guidance. Beauty stock Ulta slid more than 6% after its full-year earnings forecast largely underwhelmed analysts.
Those moves follow a losing day on Wall Street. Thursday’s retreat came after February’s producer price index, a gauge of wholesaler inflation, advanced more than economists anticipated. Bond yields climbed in the session — with the benchmark 10-year Treasury‘s reaching 4.29% — as investors wondered if the recent economic data was too strong for the Federal Reserve to loosen monetary policy.
To be sure, fed funds futures are pricing in a 99% likelihood of the central bank keeping interest rates unchanged at its policy meeting next week, according to the CME FedWatch Tool. But recent economic releases could throw into question whether the Fed feels inflation has cooled enough to begin lowering levels later this year and could raise long-term borrowing rates, according to Macquarie global FX and rates strategist at Thierry Wizman.
“I think the other issue here is not just the 2024 and 2025 [dot plot], its the other issues that the Fed is thinking about which includes that the market is too frothy,” Wizman said. “For that reason it could signal that it thinks long-term interest rates should be higher.”
Trading volumes will be elevated and prices may be volatile Friday as futures and options on stock indexes and individual stocks all expire simultaneously in a process known as “triple witching” that happens once a quarter.
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