US markets end mostly in green on Wednesday

09 Mar 2023 Evaluate

The US markets ended mostly in green on Wednesday amid the Federal Reserve released its Beige Book, with the report indicating overall economic activity in the U.S. increased slightly in early 2023. However, the choppy trading on markets reflected uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets following Tuesday's sell-off, which reflected renewed concerns about the outlook for interest following remarks by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Traders have been reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of the closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday. Street currently expects employment to jump by 203,000 jobs in February after surging by 517,000 jobs in January, while the unemployment rate is expected to hold at 3.4 percent. The jobs data could have a significant impact on the outlook for interest rates, as the Fed has warned about labor market tightness.

Meanwhile, the U.S. trade deficit saw a modest increase in the month of January, according to a report released by the Commerce Department. The Commerce Department said the trade deficit widened to $68.3 billion in January from a revised $67.2 billion in December. Street had expected the trade deficit to climb to $68.9 billion from the $67.4 billion originally reported for the previous month. On the sectoral front, most of the major sectors ended the day showing only modest moves on the day, contributing to the lackluster performance by the broader markets. Semiconductor stocks showed a substantial move to the upside, however, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index surging by 2.7 percent. Computer hardware and networking stocks also turned in strong performances, contributing to the upward move by the tech-heavy Nasdaq.

Nasdaq rose 45.67 points or 0.4 percent to 11,576 and S&P 500 was up by 5.64 points or 0.14 percent to 3,992.01, however, Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 58.06 points or 0.18 percent to 32,798.4. 

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