By Lisa Pauline Mattackal, Purvi Agarwal and Carolina Mandl
(Reuters) – Wall Street experienced a decline on Wednesday, driven by rising Treasury yields that put pressure on megacap stocks. Investor confidence in strong rate cuts from the Federal Reserve waned, and negative corporate news affected McDonald’s and Coca-Cola.
10-year U.S. Treasury yields reached a three-month high as investors reevaluated the Fed’s rate-cut outlook amidst robust economic data and the upcoming presidential election.
“The market is struggling to cope with the recent increase in yields,” noted Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist for LPL Financial, highlighting how higher rates are impacting stocks.
Rate-sensitive megacap stocks such as Nvidia, Apple, Meta Platforms, and Amazon saw declines, dragging down the tech-heavy Nasdaq. Only utilities and real estate sectors posted gains out of the 11 S&P subsectors.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 409.94 points, the S&P 500 lost 53.78 points, and the Nasdaq dropped 296.47 points.
McDonald’s plummeted 5.12% due to an E. coli infection linked to its Quarter Pounder hamburgers, while Coca-Cola fell 2.07% despite reiterating its annual profit growth forecast.
The broader consumer discretionary sector and information technology sector both experienced declines.
Boeing reported a quarterly loss of $6 billion due to a debilitating strike, causing its stock to drop 1.76%. On the other hand, Texas Instruments gained 4% after beating profit forecasts, and AT&T rose 4.60% after exceeding expectations for wireless subscriber growth.
Tesla, part of the “Magnificent Seven” companies reporting results after hours, closed down but gained 8% in after-hours trading by surpassing profit margin estimates.
The S&P 500 recorded its third consecutive daily decline, with U.S. markets nearing record highs amidst uncertainties surrounding earnings, monetary policy changes, and the upcoming election.
Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin mentioned that achieving the 2% inflation target might take longer, potentially limiting interest rate cuts.
The Fed’s “Beige Book” survey revealed stable U.S. economic activity from September to early October with a slight increase in hiring.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers on the NYSE, with 102 new highs and 59 new lows. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite also saw new highs and lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 11.83 billion shares, slightly higher than the 11.29 billion average over the last 20 trading days.
