Fed officials might finally be catching flights, but stocks might be catching a cold. After a days-long selloff, which has centered on AI-bubble fears, stocks are once again at session lows today. The Nasdaq, Dow and S&P 500 are all down -0.31%, while the Russell 2000 is down 0.05%.
What's the problem today? Well, things certainly started off on the wrong foot when Walmart reported its first profit miss in three years, with its stock falling 4% intraday. Still, sales beat estimates and guidance was raised.
Adding to the dreary mood today, jobless data showed a steep week-over-week rise in initial claims, while continuing claims continued to rise. That has turned up worries about the state of the labor market.
But we also have this, from a Bloomberg newsletter last night:
“Most Federal Reserve officials highlighted inflation risks as outweighing concerns over the labor market at their meeting last month, as President Donald Trump’s tariffs fueled a growing divide within the central bank’s rate-setting committee.
"Officials acknowledged worries over higher inflation and weaker employment, but a majority of the 18 policymakers in attendance “judged the upside risk to inflation as the greater of these two risks,” according to the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee’s July 29-30 meeting.”
Thursday Reading:
We probably don't have to wait much longer to hear what the Fed might do about this conundrum. We're officially counting down to Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's speech at the Jackson Hole Symposium tomorrow, slated for 10 a.m. EDT.
This time tomorrow in fact Powell will have wrapped what is expected to be the biggest Fed speech of 2025. We expect his two cents will give us a better idea of what we can expect from the central bank for the rest of his term as chairman, which ends May 15.
Until then, it's business as usual. Stocks down, gold up, the 10-year treasury little moved. Investors today can focus on other things, like after-hours earnings from Zoom, Intuit and Workday. The software providers will at the least provide a modest distraction until tomorrow's table stakes.
TurboTax via TheStreet
-- Noah Weidner, markets reporter
