Stocks Whipsaw With Dow Erasing 700 Point Gain As Fed Rate Cut Odds Drop
Topline
The three major market indexes traded down Thursday afternoon after surging earlier in the day, as investors appeared to pull back on dimming hopes the Federal Reserve would cut interest rates again in December.
Nvidia President and CEO Jensen Huang delivers the keynote address during the Nvidia GTC (GPU Technology Conference).
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Key Facts
The Dow Jones Industrial Average swung nearly 1,100 points by Thursday afternoon, falling by roughly 320 points (0.7%) after trading up more than 700 points earlier in the day, with losses across the S&P 500 (down 1.1%) and Nasdaq (1.5%) following a similar rally for both indexes.
Nvidia, whose shares rose earlier by more than 3.5% after the chipmaker’s quarterly earnings beat Wall Street’s estimates, declined by 2.5%, adding to losses from Intel (2.8%), AMD (6%), Palantir (5.2%), Qualcomm (3.1%), Amazon (1.8%), Microsoft (1.5%), Meta (1.1%) and Tesla (1.5%).
The chip designer led losses across the tech-heavy Nasdaq and Dow, which was pulled down by losses from Boeing (3.7%), Walt Disney (1.8%), Goldman Sachs (1.1%) and Cisco (2.9%).
Why Are Stocks Down Today?
Jeff Kilburg, an analyst at KKM Financial, told CNBC a reversal for Nvidia shares—leading to a broader decline for tech stocks—coincided with the lowering probability for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates in December. Investors are trading in just under 40% odds for interest rates to be lowered by 25 basis points to between 3.5% and 3.75%, after the probability peaked as high as 90% last month, according to CME Group’s FedWatch. Lower odds Thursday followed the Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting the U.S. added 119,000 jobs in September, well above analysts’ estimates despite the unemployment rate rising to 4.4%, as a possible signal of a brief recovery for the labor market.