Wall Street down, down by banking sector and Apple – 01/16/2024 at 11:11 pm

By Noel Randwich and Johann M Cherian

The New York Stock Exchange ended lower on Tuesday, as mixed results reported by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley weighed on the banking sector, while declines in Apple and Boeing also weighed on the S&P-500.

The Dow Jones index fell 0.62% to 37,361.12 points.

The broader S&P-500 closed down 0.37% at 4,765.98 points.

The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.19% to 14,944.35 points.

Several major US banks had an unofficial start to results season on Friday. As Wall Street closed on Monday, Morgan Stanley fell 4.2% to a more than one-month low after reporting a lower quarterly profit, while Goldman Sachs advanced 0.7% following a jump in its profit.

Markets were overshadowed by comments from Federal Reserve (Fed) Governor Christopher Waller, who said there was no need for the US central bank to rush to cut interest rates, even as he said he was more confident of getting inflation under control.

While the first rate cut in March was expected last month, traders are now betting less and less on this hypothesis.

“What happened today is another form of market consolidation associated with the idea that investors were a little more optimistic about the Fed’s willingness to cut rates,” Ross commented. Mayfield, Baird’s analyst.

Ten of the S&P-500’s eleven major sectors ended the session in the red, led by energy, with a decline of 2.4%.

Spirit Airlines fell 47% after a US federal judge blocked the airline’s takeover of JetBlue Airways.

Apple fell 1.2% after a rare cut in the price of its iPhones in China, decided to respond to intense competition in the country.

Advanced Micro Devices rose 8.3% after analysts at Barclays raised their price targets, as did other semiconductor makers.

Boeing fell nearly 8% to a two-month low following the US Aviation Administration’s decision to ground the 737 MAX 9 indefinitely.

(French version Jean Terzian)