Investors hold back after Fed hint on rates – New York Report
Investor caution after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen yesterday pointed to a possible rate hike in December weighed on Wall Street, retracing recent gains along with energy shares.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 50.57 points, or 0.28 per cent, to 17,867.58, the S&P 500 lost 7.48 points, or 0.35 per cent, to 2,102.31 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.65 points, or 0.05 per cent, to 5,142.48.
The fall snapped a run of five straight days of gains for the index, with shares of Chevron down 1.4 per cent at $96.77 and Exxon Mobile down one per cent at $85.98.
Stocks added to losses after Yellen’s comments, which caused investors to reset their expectations of a December rate hike above 60 per cent.
Yellen said December remains a “live possibility” for a rate increase, and William Dudley, the president of the New York Fed and a permanent voting member of the Fed’s policy panel, said later that he would “completely agree” with Yellen.
Time Warner, down 6.6 per cent at $72.20, weighed on the S&P 500 the most after the company said ratings for its “key” domestic entertainment networks have dropped more than anticipated.
Shares of Twenty-First Century Fox dropped 5.2 per cent to $29.65 after it reported lower-than-expected quarterly revenue.
Other media stocks such as Disney, Viacom and Discovery also fell.
Health insurers also slid, with UnitedHealth, down 2.6 per cent at $114.64, the biggest drag on the Dow.
Groupon slumped 26.3 per cent to $2.97 after it forecast weak fourth-quarter and 2016 revenue.