US markets end lower after Fed Chief Powell signals no rate cut soon

03 May 2019 Evaluate

Magnifying their previous session’s losses, the US markets ended lower on Thursday with yesterday's remarks by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell suggesting the central bank is not likely to lower interest rates in the near future as some had hoped. Powell said the Fed sees transitory factors contributing to recent low inflation readings. Powell said the Fed would take persistently low inflation into account when setting policy but currently expects inflation to return to the 2 percent objective. Traders also moved out of risky assets such as stocks ahead of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday. Employment is expected to increase by 185,000 jobs in April following the addition of 196,000 jobs in March, while the unemployment rate is expected to hold at 3.8 percent. Meanwhile, traders largely shrugged off the release of a batch of largely upbeat US economic data, including a Labor Department report showing a spike in productivity.

The Labor Department said productivity surged up by 3.6 percent in the first quarter after climbing by a downwardly revised 1.3 percent in the fourth quarter. Street had expected production to jump by 2.2 percent compared to the 1.9 percent increase that had been reported for the previous quarter. The report also said unit labor costs dropped by 0.9 percent in the first quarter after soaring by 2.5 percent in the fourth quarter. The pullback in unit labor costs came as a surprise to investors, who had expected costs to climb by 1.5 percent during the quarter. Besides, a separate report from the Commerce Department showed new orders for manufactured goods jumped by more than expected in March amid a substantial rebound in orders for transportation equipment. The Commerce Department said factory orders spiked by 1.9 percent in March after falling by a revised 0.3 percent in February. Street had expected orders to surge up by 1.5 percent.

Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 122.35 points or 0.46 percent to 26307.79, Nasdaq dropped 12.87 points or 0.16 percent to 8036.77 and S&P 500 was down by 6.21 points or 0.21 percent to 2917.52.

© 2026 The Alchemists Ark Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved. MoneyWorks4Me ® is a registered trademark of The Alchemists Ark Pvt. Ltd.

×