— Now the fight is shifting from inflation to maintaining economic growth and avoiding recession. Interest rate cuts are closer than people think, says Jamie Cox, an adviser at the financial analysis company Harris Financial Group, to Bloomberg.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1 percent, while the broad S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite both rose 0.1 percent.
In terms of companies, retail giant Walmart provided a sour forecast for future earnings. The stock, which before Thursday lifted 20 percent so far this year, fell 8.1 percent.
Technology company Cisco Systems also released a report that did not cheer the market, and the stock plunged 9.8 percent.
The department store chain Macy’s profit forecast fell into better soil and the stock jumped 5.7 percent.
Highest in two years
The Federal Reserve (Fed) has gradually raised the key interest rate to today’s range of 5.25-5.50 percent – the highest level since 2001.
But on Thursday there were new signals that the increases are starting to eat into more than just the outermost tail of the economy. According to new statistics, the almost improbably tough labor market is showing signs of cooling down – which is what the Fed is aiming for.
Last week, claims for unemployment benefits rose to the highest level in nearly two years. A total of 231,000 new applications came in during the week, an increase of 13,000 compared to the previous week and more than the 220,000 expected.
Pessimistic construction industry
Including older benefits, which are counted back another week, 1,865,000 people are now receiving unemployment benefits in the United States. That represents an increase of 32,000 people and was higher than the expected 1,853,000.
Another survey showed that the construction industry’s confidence in the future fell to the most pessimistic level this year.
All this makes many analysts believe that the Fed will refrain from raising when the next interest rate announcement comes on December 13.
The ambivalent movements of the three major indexes around zero can also be seen as a possible temporary saturation in light of the big gains earlier in November.