Stan Choe
Wall Street is drifting in mixed trading on Wednesday after another discouraging update on inflation and a recovery for technology stocks.
The S&P 500 rose 0.8 per cent and was on track to squeak past its all-time high set at the start of the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 52 points, or 0.1 per cent, as of 2:19 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.4 per cent higher.
The Australian sharemarket is set to decline, with futures at 5.02am AEST pointing to a fall of 39 points, or 0.5 per cent, at the open. The ASX lost 0.5 per cent on Wednesday, with bank shares diving after the release of the federal budget. The Australian dollar is trading at US72.58¢ at 5.16am AEST.
Gains for Wall Street’s tech stocks helped support the market, like Micron Technology’s 4.6 per cent and On Semiconductor’s 11 per cent. They had stumbled the day before after momentum suddenly halted for stocks riding excitement around artificial-intelligence technology.
Nvidia, the chip company that was among the first faces of the AI boom, rose 2.9 per cent and was the strongest force pushing upward on the S&P 500 because of its immense size. Its CEO, Jensen Huang, got an invitation to join President Donald Trump on his trip to China, where they could discuss allowing shipments of Nvidia AI chips to the world’s second-largest economy.
Meanwhile, the Senate narrowly confirmed Kevin Warsh as chair of the Federal Reserve, setting up the most controversial leadership transition at the US central bank in decades and a test of its political independence.
The 54-45 vote Wednesday was the slimmest confirmation margin ever for a head of the central bank, reflecting polarised politics in Congress and Democratic fears that Warsh will bend to President Donald Trump’s demands to rapidly lower interest rates.
Earlier in the day, Japan’s SoftBank Group said that its profit for the 12 months through March zoomed by nearly five-fold from the previous year as its AI investments paid off. China’s Alibaba Group said its AI and cloud growth accelerated in the latest quarter, and its stock that trades in the United States rose 7.7 per cent even though its overall results fell short of analysts’ expectations.
But the majority of stocks outside of the technology industry fell, as pressure builds on Wall Street.
“Corporate earnings and AI momentum are acting as the market’s primary shock absorbers, but the road is getting significantly rougher,” said Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade.
A report on Wednesday showed that US inflation at the wholesale level was worse last month than economists expected. That followed a report on Tuesday showing accelerating inflation at the US consumer level.
Prices are rising for fuel, transportation and all kinds of other things because of tariffs, bad weather affecting food prices and other reasons. But atop all of them is the jump in oil prices created by the war with Iran, which has slowed the global flow of crude to customers worldwide.
On Wednesday, oil prices moved more modestly following big gains early in the week, and the price for a barrel of Brent crude oil fell 1.7 per cent to $US105.90.
That remains well above its price of roughly $US70 from before the war, and the International Energy Agency said Wednesday that oil inventories worldwide are depleting at a record pace. The jump in oil prices has forced traders to give up most hopes for a cut to interest rates this year by the Federal Reserve. If anything, a hike to rates seems like the next-best bet after no move in rates this year.
Lower rates would give the economy a boost by making mortgages and other loans cheaper. But they can also worsen inflation while they push upward on prices for stocks and all kinds of other investments.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.48 per cent from 4.46 per cent late Tuesday and is well above its 3.97 per cent level from before the war.
The rise in yields helped send stocks of utilities and real-estate owners to the sharpest losses in the S&P 500. Such companies tend to pay relatively big dividends, which become less attractive to investors looking for income when bonds are paying more in interest.
American Electric Power fell 3.2 per cent after announcing a $US2.6 billion offering of its stock.
Elsewhere on Wall Street, Birkenstock Holding dropped 13 per cent after the British company said its results for the latest quarter were hurt by US tariffs and other factors.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia.
South Korea’s Kospi led the way with a jump of 2.6 per cent. It had sunk 2.3 per cent the day before after a senior figure in the administration suggested the government may redistribute windfall AI profits from companies to citizens. That sapped momentum from AI stocks worldwide on Tuesday.
AP
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