Wall Street’s main indexes ticked lower on Friday after a hotter-than-expected producer prices report pushed back market speculations of imminent interest rate cuts by the U.S. Federal Reserve.
A Labor Department report showed U.S. producer prices increased more than expected in January amid strong gains in the costs of services, which could amplify worries that inflation was picking up.
Treasury yields spiked after the report, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year note last at 4.306%, as traders added to bets that the Fed may defer the first rate cut until after June.
The PPI data follows a selloff in equity markets earlier this week that was driven by a hotter-than-expected consumer prices report, though a slump in January retail sales provided some relief on Thursday.
Most megacap stocks gave up early gains, with Meta Platforms falling 2.0% and dragging the S&P 500 communication services index down 1.1%.
Nvidia bucked the trend, up 0.9%, after Oppenheimer hiked its price target on the chip designer’s stock.
Applied Materials jumped 7.3% to a record high after the semiconductor equipment supplier forecast better-than-expected second-quarter revenue on strong demand for advanced chips used in AI.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq is set to snap a five-week winning streak, while the benchmark S&P 500 also lost some steam this week after jumping more than 5% so far this year.
