Wall Street ends down as Boeing, Apple weigh

NEW YORK: US stocks ended lower on Tuesday (Jan 16) after mixed earnings from Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs pressured banks, and as sell-offs in Boeing and Apple weighed on the S&P 500.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 231.86 points, or 0.62%, to 37,361.12, the S&P 500 lost 17.85 points, or 0.37%, to 4,765.98 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 28.41 points, or 0.19%, to 14,944.35.

Morgan Stanley tumbled 4.2% to a more than one-month low after it posted a lower quarterly profit, while Goldman Sachs’ stock ended 0.7% higher after it reported a 51% rise in profit.

The S&P 500 banks index dipped 1.2% to an over one-month low after other major US banks reported lower profits on Friday.

Spirit Airlines slumped 47% after a federal judge blocked JetBlue Airways’ planned US$3.8 billion acquisition of the ultra-low cost carrier, agreeing with the US Department of Justice the deal would hurt consumers.

Apple dropped 1.2% after offering rare discounts on its iPhones in China in response to stiff competition there, days after being overtaken by Microsoft as the world’s most valuable firm.

Federal Reserve governor Christopher Waller dampened sentiment by saying there should be no rush to cut interest rates even though he was more confident of inflation being on track to meet the Fed’s 2% target.

Traders pared expectations that the Fed might begin its rate cuts in March, with US Treasury yields also rising.

“Certainly valuations are extended, but I think what is happening today is more of a broader consolidation of markets around that idea that investors had gotten a little too optimistic about how willing the Fed would be to ease rates,” said Ross Mayfield, an investment strategy analyst at Baird.

Following strong December gains, the S&P 500 has been near its January 2022 record high close for the past several sessions. It is now down about 1% from that record high.

Wall Street rose last week as investors continued to bet on an early start to the Fed’s monetary-policy-easing cycle, despite a lack of supporting voices among policymakers and mixed inflation data.

UBS Global Research boosted its 2024 year-end target for the S&P 500 to 5,150 points, representing a more than 8% upside from current levels.

Advanced Micro Devices jumped 8.3% after Barclays analysts raised their price targets for AMD and several other chipmakers, saying they would benefit from growth in artificial intelligence. Larger rival Nvidia climbed about 3% and hit a record high.

Boeing slumped almost 8% to a two-month low after the Federal Aviation Administration extended the grounding of its 737 MAX 9 airplanes indefinitely and Wells Fargo downgraded the stock to “equal weight” from “overweight”. – Reuters