Stocks continued to decline on Thursday as remarks from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled that the central bank is intending to slow the pace of its rate-cutting campaign. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped over 200 points, while the S&P 500 Index and Nasdaq Composite each lost about 0.6%.
Here's how the market settled on Thursday:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): -0.60% or -36.21 points to 5,949.17
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): -0.47% or -207.33 points to 43,750.86
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): -0.64% or -123.07 points to 19,107.65
FedWatch:
Fed Chair Jerome Powell said in remarks delivered in Dallas, Texas on Thursday that stable U.S. economic growth supports conservative interest rate decisions amongst policymakers as "inflation is running much closer to our 2 percent longer-run goal, but it is not there yet."
"The economy is not sending any signals that we need to be in a hurry to lower rates," Powell said. "The strength we are currently seeing in the economy gives us the ability to approach our decisions carefully."
"We are confident that with an appropriate recalibration of our policy stance, strength in the economy and the labor market can be maintained, with inflation moving sustainably down to 2 percent," he added. "We are moving policy over time to a more neutral setting. But the path for getting there is not preset."
Moving Markets:
Wholesale Prices ticked higher in October, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday, but stayed mostly in-line with economist expectations.
The producer price index (PPI) rose by a seasonally adjusted 0.2% last month, up one-tenth of a percentage point from September and matching estimates from Dow Jones. On an annual basis, headline inflation rose 2.4% in October. Excluding food and energy prices, core PPI rose 0.3% in October, also matching expectations, and 3.1% year-over-year.
On the Earnings Front:
Disney (NYSE: DIS) reported better-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday, benefitting from growth in its streaming business. The company expects high-single-digit adjusted earnings growth compared to the prior year for fiscal 2025, as well as double-digit adjusted earnings per share growth in both fiscal 2026 and 2027.
"I think the fact that we have had such a strong '24 overall has been an important part of the guidance we are getting," said CFO Hugh Johnston in an interview with CNBC on Thursday. "If you think of the big initiatives we have invested, putting creativity back at the center of the company, and on top of that, we said we wanted to improve profitability and we are clearly doing that in a substantive way."
Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) reported its fourth straight quarterly revenue decline late Wednesday for its fiscal first-quarter, even as its results beat expectations. CEO Chuck Robbins highlighted during the company's earnings call with analysts that orders from large-scale clients for artificial intelligence infrastructure topped $300 million during the quarter.
"We have earned more design wins and remain confident that we will exceed our target of $1 billion of AI orders this fiscal year from web-scale customers," Robbins said.
"Overtime, you'll see us support other GPUs as the market demands," Robbins added, announcing that hardware using Nvidia's (NASDAQ: NVDA) GPUs. "But that partnership is still going fine. It's still early. And I think 2025 is when we'll start to see enterprise real deployment of some of these technologies."
In the News:
Capri (NYSE: CPRI)and Tapestry (NYSE: TPR) announced Thursday that they will no longer pursue their merger, as the Federal Trade Commission successfully sued to block the $8.5 billion deal on claims it would disadvantage customers and reduce employee benefits.
"With the termination of the merger agreement, we are now focusing on the future of Capri and our three iconic luxury houses," Capri CEO John Idol said in a statement. "Looking ahead, I remain confident in Capri's long-term growth potential for numerous reasons."
"We have always had multiple paths to growth and our decision today clarifies the forward strategy. Building on our successful first quarter, we will move with speed and boldness to accelerate growth for our organic business," Tapestry CEO Joanne Crevoiserat said in a statement.
Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois raised the firm's price target on Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) on Thursday to $300 from $195, implying a 9% downside as the firm maintained its Hold rating on the stock.
"Musk and Tesla can provide a critical bridge between China and the Trump administration and a moderating influence on Tariffs given Tesla's global market and sourcing exposure," Houchois wrote in a Thursday note to clients. "How much or how long markets ignore potential conflicts of interests ranging from political responsibilities to governance and compensation, is unclear."
For Friday:
Market participants will turn their attention towards a series of Fedspeak alongside October's U.S. retail sales reading on Friday. The session also includes earnings reports from companies including Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT) and Alibaba (NYSE: BABA).