por admin » Jue Abr 11, 2019 3:07 pm
U.S. Stocks Inch Lower Ahead of Quarterly Earnings
Many investors are hesitant to make big bets before they see first-quarter results
By Georgi Kantchev and Corrie Driebusch
Updated April 11, 2019 12:18 p.m. ET
U.S. stock prices edged lower Thursday, as traders said markets were in a holding pattern ahead of the first big batch of quarterly earnings results set to arrive Friday morning.
In anticipation, trading activity has slowed in recent weeks as many investors are hesitant to make big bets before they see corporate results. On Wednesday, fewer shares changed hands than on any other day of the year.
The S&P 500 slipped 0.1% in recent trading, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2%. The Nasdaq Composite declined 0.2%.
“Markets are in a wait-and-see mode, waiting for the next catalyst,” said U.S. Bank Wealth Management chief equity strategist Terry Sandven. “Global growth remains sluggish but that also means the Fed has shifted to a cautious tone, which provides some comfort for markets.”
Earnings season begins in earnest on Friday when JPMorgan and Wells Fargo report results. Next week several corporate heavyweights are slated to file their quarterly earnings.
“Expectations for first-quarter results have been ratcheted down on the heels of sluggish global growth, so the bar is low and it could set the stage for upside surprises,” Mr. Sandven said.
Before the stock market opened, traders were greeted with the latest read on business prices, which indicated that inflation is firming after a soft patch around the end of last year.
Traders working on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange last week. Photo: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg News
The producer-price index, a measure of prices businesses receive for their goods and services, in March posted its biggest increase since October, the Labor Department said.
Investors have also been monitoring the latest developments in trade talks between the U.S. and China. The Wall Street Journal reported that Beijing has sweetened an offer to open its cloud-computing sector to foreign companies, in a bid to forge a trade deal after U.S. negotiators rejected an earlier proposal as inadequate.
The WSJ Dollar Index, which tracks the dollar against a basket of 16 currencies, was up 0.3%. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield rose slightly to 2.483%. Yields move inversely to prices.
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In Europe, the Stoxx Europe 600 was up 0.1% after falling earlier in the session. That followed mixed trading in Asia.
Minutes of the Federal Reserve’s March meeting released Wednesday suggested the central bank has set a high bar to raising rates again, because of greater risks to the U.S. economy from a global growth slowdown and after a muted inflation reading took more officials by surprise.
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said Wednesday that Europe’s economic slowdown would continue this year.
Faltering growth around the world has led to a dovish tilt for central banks. That has been a welcome development for investors after a bruising winter when expectations of rate rises helped send stocks into a tailspin.
The British pound was broadly flat Thursday after European Union leaders agreed to postpone Brexit until Oct. 31 to allow British Prime Minister Theresa May more time to try to get the U.K.’s Parliament to approve the country’s divorce deal.
In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.9% while Japan’s Nikkei was up 0.1%.