Stock market today: Wall Street slips as its red-hot rally cools some more
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are slipping Wednesday as some more steam comes out of Wall Street’s huge, record-breaking rally.
The S&P 500 was 0.3% lower in early trading. It’s coming off two small losses since setting an all-time high on Friday and on track for its first three-day losing streak since early September. But the pullback follows a super run where the index rallied for six straight weeks, its longest such streak of the year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 234 points, or 0.5%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.5% lower.
McDonald’s helped pull the market lower and dropped 6.1% after federal health officials linked its Quarter Pounder burgers with an E.coli outbreak that’s affected at least 49 people in 10 states. Investigators are still trying to find what specific ingredient is contaminated, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said McDonald’s stopped using fresh slivered onions and quarter pound beef patties in several states while the investigation is ongoing.
Starbucks sank 1.9% after reporting weaker sales trends at its U.S. stores and preliminary revenue and profit for the latest quarter that fell short of analysts’ expectations. The coffee giant also pulled its financial forecasts for 2025 because of its transition to a new CEO, Brian Niccol, who recently took over after leaving Chipotle Mexican Grill.
Helping to keep the losses for indexes in check was Texas Instruments, which rose 3.6%. The semiconductor company reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. While revenue from industrial users declined from the prior quarter, CEO Haviv Ilan said all other end markets grew.
Northern Trust climbed 4.6% after likewise topping analysts’ estimates for profit and revenue in the latest quarter.
U.S. stocks have generally been slowing their record-breaking momentum this week under increasing pressure from rising Treasury yields.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose again Wednesday to 4.24% from 4.21% late Tuesday and from just 4.08% Friday. Higher yields for Treasurys can make investors less willing to pay high prices for stocks, which some analysts say already look too expensive after rising faster than corporate profits.
Treasury yields have been climbing after a raft of reports have shown the U.S. economy remains stronger than expected. That’s good news for Wall Street, because it bolsters hopes that the economy can escape from the worst inflation in generations without the painful recession that many had worried was inevitable.
Traders are now largely expecting the Fed to cut its main interest rate by half a percentage point more through the end of the year, according to data from CME Group. A month ago, some of those same traders were betting on the federal funds rate ending the year as much as half a percentage point lower than that.
In stock markets abroad, Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.8% despite a surge of 45% for Tokyo Metro Co.’s stock in its trading debut. It was Japan’s largest IPO since SoftBank Corp. went public in 2018.
Chinese markets rose for a second day after the central bank cut its one-year and five-year Loan Prime Rates on Monday. Indexes rose 1.3% in Hong Kong’s and 0.5% in Shanghai, while European markets were modestly lower.
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AP Writers Matt Ott and Zimo Zhong contributed.
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