New York, Aug 18 – Wall Street opened this Thursday in mixed terrain and its main indicator, the Dow Jones Industrials, lost 0.14%, after the minutes of the Federal Reserve meeting, published yesterday, they revealed that the central bank sees risks in both raising interest rates too high and not setting them high enough.
Fifteen minutes after the floor opened, the Dow Jones subtracted 48.86 points, to 33,931.46 integers, while the selective S&P 500 gained a slight 0.01% or 0.15 units, to 4,274.19 points.
The composite index of the Nasdaq market, which brings together the main technology companies, decreased by a slight 0.01% or 1.10 integers, to 12,937.03 units.
For the most part, investors saw a mixed message in the Fed’s minutes, insisting that rate hikes will continue until inflation is under control, but also acknowledging that “it would probably be appropriate at some point.” reduce the pace of those increases while “the effects are evaluated” of those that have already been made.
On July 27, the Fed approved the fourth rate hike in a row and the second in a row of 0.75 points and, according to its president, Jerome Powell, another “unusually high” increase in September is not ruled out if inflation continues to rise .
At this meeting, however, part of the attendees recognized that the increases could be moderated in a “likely” scenario in which inflation falls and with a “slower, but still positive, economic growth.”
Wall Street gauges have risen in recent weeks on signs that inflation was moderating and hopes the Fed would relax its aggressive rate-hiking campaign.
“We still have a lot of restrictions, a lot of uncertainty and an earnings recession is coming,” said Joe Little, chief global strategist at HSBC Asset Management, in a statement collected by The Wall Street Journal, who also noted that it is becoming more difficult to achieve the “soft landing” that the central bank wanted to achieve with a progressive rise in rates.
By sectors, the greatest gains were for energy (1.78%) and public services (0.3%), while at the other extreme the losses of the health sector (-0.61%) and communications stood out. (-0.31%).
Among the 30 listed companies of the Dow Jones, the advances of Cisco stood out -which yesterday announced positive results- (6.11%) and Chevron (1.46%), while the biggest losses were for Walgreens Boots (-4.41 %), Verizon (-2.77%) and Nike (-0.98%).
In other markets, Texas oil rose to $89.74 a barrel, the 10-year Treasury yield fell to 2.859%, gold rose to $1,782.3 an ounce and the dollar gained ground against the euro, with an exchange rate of 1.012.