(Reuters) -U.S. stock indexes were on track to open lower on Friday, retreating after several strong sessions, as investors weighed hawkish Federal Reserve projections against the backdrop of a cooling economy.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq notched record closing highs for the fourth consecutive session on Thursday, as technology shares rallied.
Data earlier in the week showed inflation pressures softened in May, while another report said the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits increased last week to a 10-month high. That helped keep alive hopes for a forthcoming interest rate cut by the Fed.
However, that clashed with the central bank’s own forecasts released on Wednesday, where policymakers dialed back their projections for three cuts this year to just one.
Markets, however, persisted with expectations of a September start to policy easing – pricing in an over 70% chance of a cut at that meeting – while interest rate traders are pricing in about two cuts by year-end.
“Investors think the Fed’s data was already somewhat out of date … there is a sense that if the Fed had gotten that (CPI) data a couple weeks in advance, they may have left it at two cuts,” said Ross Mayfield, investment strategy analyst at Baird.
Several megacap growth stocks that have led much of Wall Street’s rallies this year were down in premarket trading, with Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) losing between 0.2% and 0.6%.
Hopes of easing Fed policy, combined with megacaps’ strength, have seen major indexes rally, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq on pace for their seventh week of gains out of eight.
However, this has raised some concerns about the sustainability of equity strength, especially if economic recession risks grow, with the blue-chip Dow on track to end the week slightly lower.
“The market is also just pricing in a probability, even if it’s a small one, of a second half recession where the Fed has to cut rates a lot,” Mayfield said.
Futures tracking the economically sensitive small-cap Russell 2000 slipped 1.1%.
Chip stocks were a bright spot, building on Thursday’s gains that saw Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) help lift the semiconductor index to an all-time high on Thursday. In trading before the bell, the chipmaker rose 0.3%, while peer Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) edged up 0.4%.
A BofA Global Research report also showed the appeal of growth stocks, as U.S. value stock funds saw $2.6 billion of outflows, while investors poured $1.8 billion into U.S. growth stock funds in the week to Wednesday.
Investors will also eye comments from Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee and Fed Governor Lisa Cook later on Friday, as well as the University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment survey for June.
At 8:24 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 258 points, or 0.67%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 21.75 points, or 0.4%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 37 points, or 0.19%.
Among others, Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) jumped 15.1% after the company raised its annual revenue forecast on more demand for its artificial intelligence-powered software.
Sirius XM (NASDAQ:SIRI) slipped 1.6% after the Nasdaq said the stock would be removed from the Nasdaq 100 index, and replaced with Arm Holdings (NASDAQ:ARM). Shares of Arm rose 0.6%.
Source: Economy - investing.com
