US markets end mostly in red on Wednesday

08 Dec 2022 Evaluate

The US markets ended mostly lower on Wednesday as traders expressed uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets ahead of next week's Federal Reserve meeting. The Fed still seems poised to slow the pace of interest rate hikes, but recent upbeat economic data has raised concerns about how much further the central bank will raise rates at future meetings. The recent selling on markets partly reflects worries the Fed will be need to push the economy into a prolonged recession in order to bring inflation down close to its 2 percent target. On the sectoral front, reflecting the lackluster performance by the broader markets, most of the major sectors ended the day showing only modest moves in afternoon trading. Airline stocks showed a substantial move to the downside, however, dragging the NYSE Arca Airline Index down by 3.1 percent to its lowest closing level in a month.

Considerable weakness also emerged among oil service stocks, as reflected by the 2.3 percent slump by the Philadelphia Oil Service Index. Steel, networking and brokerage stocks also moved to the downside, although selling pressure was somewhat subdued. On the economic data front, revised data released by the Labor Department on Wednesday showed U.S. labor productivity increased by much more than initially estimated in the third quarter. The Labor Department said labor productivity climbed by 0.8 percent in the third quarter compared to the previously reported 0.3 percent uptick. Street had expected productivity growth to be upwardly revised to 0.5 percent. The upward revision to labor productivity, a measure of output per hour, came as the spike in output was upwardly revised to 3.3 percent from 2.8 percent, while the jump in hours worked was upwardly revised to 2.5 percent from 2.4 percent.

Nasdaq dropped 56.34 points or 0.51 percent to 10,958.55 and S&P 500 was down by 7.34 points or 0.19 percent to 3,933.92, while Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.58 points to 33,597.92.  

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