Wall Street closes mixed; Nasdaq and S&P 500 pull back from their record highs

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 retreated from record highs, impacted by sharp losses in tech stocks, despite positive U.S. inflation data.

On Thursday, the three major Wall Street indices closed mixed. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 moved away from record highs, affected by significant declines in tech stocks, despite positive June inflation data.

The leading index, the Dow Jones, comprising 30 giant companies’ stocks, rose by 0.08% to 39,753.75 points. The S&P 500, consisting of 500 stocks, fell by 0.88% to 5,584.54 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.95% to 18,283.41 points.

Tech giants experienced steep declines after a period of significant gains that had driven the market to multiple records. Notably, Tesla (-8.50%), Nvidia (-5.57%), and Apple (-2.32%) saw significant losses, though the downturn was widespread.

In economic news, U.S. inflation data indicated a decrease in price pressures. This bolstered expectations that the Federal Reserve (Fed) might soon cut its benchmark interest rate.

Tomorrow, the U.S. Producer Price Index data will be released, and markets are hopeful it will provide more clues about the future of interest rates. According to CME’s FedWatch, investors see an 84.6% probability of a rate cut in September.

Gains were predominant across sectors, led by real estate (2.66%). Among the 30 companies making up the Dow Jones, Home Depot (+2.79%) and McDonald’s (+1.72%) saw notable increases, while Intel (-3.93%) and Microsoft (-2.48%) experienced losses.