US markets end mostly in red on Friday

15 Jul 2023 Evaluate

The US markets gave up most of their initial gains and ended mostly in red on Friday. initial strength on Wall Street was reflected ongoing optimism about the Federal Reserve being close to ending its monetary policy tightening following recent encouraging inflation data. Some optimism also crept in reacting to upbeat earnings news from financial giants JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Wells Fargo (WFC) and Citigroup (C). However, shares of JPMorgan and Wells Fargo subsequently pulled back near the unchanged line, and shares Citigroup came under pressure as the company's second quarter earnings beat street estimates but decreased year-over-year.

On the economic data front, a report released by the Labor Department showed a modest decrease in import prices in the month of June. The Labor Department said import prices dipped by 0.2 percent in June after falling by a revised 0.4 percent in May. Street had expected import prices to edge down by 0.1 percent compared to the 0.6 percent decrease originally reported for the previous month. Meanwhile, the report said export prices slumped by 0.9 percent in June after tumbling by 1.9 percent in May. Export prices were expected to slip by 0.2 percent.

A separate report released by the University of Michigan showed consumer sentiment has improved by much more than anticipated in the month of July The report showed the consumer sentiment index soared to 72.6 in July from 64.4 in June. Street had expected the index to tick up to 65.5. With the much bigger than expected surge, the consumer sentiment index reached its highest level since hitting 72.8 in September 2021.

Nasdaq lost 24.87 points or 0.18 percent to 14,113.70 and S&P 500 was down by 4.62 points or 0.1 percent to 4,505.42, while Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 113.89 points or 0.33 percent to 34,509.03.

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