March private payrolls up 184,000 vs est. of 148,000
Powell scheduled to speak at 1210 ET (1610 GMT)
Intel down after revealing deepening losses at chip-making unit
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Indexes up: Dow 0.19%, S&P 0.34%, Nasdaq 0.41%
(Updated at 10:29 a.m. ET)
By Sruthi Shankar and Shashwat Chauhan
April 3 (Reuters) – Wall Street’s main indexes swung higher on Wednesday after softer-than-expected services sector data offered relief to investors worried about the Federal Reserve taking a cautious approach to monetary easing.
A survey from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) showed U.S. services industry growth slowed further in March, while a measure of prices paid by businesses for inputs dropped to a four-year low, which bodes well for the inflation outlook.
“It wasn’t quite as hot as we had anticipated and because it is services data, we might think that’s a good thing,” said Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners in Pittsburgh.
Futures had come under pressure after data earlier showed private payrolls rose by 184,000 jobs in March, beating economists’ forecast of an increase of 148,000.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq and the blue-chip Dow closed at two-week lows on Tuesday as Treasury yields rose to multi-month highs after solid manufacturing activity and factory orders data raised doubts over the prospect of three rate cuts the Fed had forecast for 2024.
“The market has come around to the Fed’s expectation for three rate cuts this year, but if we continue to get strong labor market data, it’s going to push them further towards fewer than three cuts this year,” said Ross Mayfield, investment strategy analyst at Baird.
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield edged higher to 4.4033%, having hit a fresh high for scam the year earlier in the day.
Traders are pricing in a 57% chance the Fed will cut interest rates by 25 basis points in June, according to CMEGroup’s FedWatch tool, down from about 64% a week ago.
The Fed should not cut its benchmark interest rate until the end of this year, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said, as he maintained his view that the U.S. central bank should reduce borrowing costs only once over the course of 2024.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell is set to speak at 1210 ET (1610 GMT).
Focus is also on the Labor Department’s jobs report on Friday that is expected to show U.S. nonfarm payrolls increased by 200,000 jobs in March, following 275,000 job additions in February.
At 10:29 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 75.08 points, or 0.19%, at 39,245.32, the S&P 500 was up 17.61 points, or 0.34%, at 5,223.42, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 66.85 points, or 0.41%, at 16,307.30.
Among individual stocks, Ulta Beauty tumbled 13.4% after the beauty retailer gave downbeat forecast at an industry conference. Shares of e.l.f. Beauty fell 8.3%, while Coty dropped 3.8%.
Intel fell 6.4% after the chipmaker disclosed $7 billion in operating losses for its foundry business in 2023, steeper than the $5.2 billion reported the year before.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.24-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and 1.05-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 28 new 52-week highs and three new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 45 new highs and 77 new lows. (Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Shinjini Ganguli)
