Stocks on Wall Street stumbled after US jobs and services activity figures painted a picture of resilience in the world’s biggest economy, damping expectations for an interest rate cuts this year.
The Nasdaq Composite fell 1.5% in afternoon trading with tech stocks hit hardest as the upbeat economic data add to expectations the Federal Reserve won’t cut its key rate as aggressively as investors previously thought.
While Wall Street grappled with more upbeat US economic data, European stocks rallied on the region’s more mixed picture, with energy stocks advancing with Brent crude oil prices up 1% at US$77.08 a barrel. Germany’s DAX was up 0.6% while France’s CAC 40 also rose 0.6%.
Australia may dodge the Wall Street decline, with ASX futures indicating a 0.2% increase on the S&P/ASX 200 today.
Tech stocks unwound some of the prior day’s gain, with Nvidia the worst performer on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, falling 4.2%. That was despite chief executive Jensen Huang’s presentation at the consumer electronics showcase in Las Vegas on Monday, outlining how self-driving cars and robotics as growth areas for artificial intelligence.
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Meanwhile, Meta Platforms fell 1.4% after stepping back its content moderation as the social media giant in its latest move seen as currying favour with the incoming Donald Trump-led administration.
A slew of deals were announced in the downbeat day, with Getty Images planning to merge with rival Shutterstock to create a US$3.7 billion stock image player, while workplace producers maker Cintas lobbed in a US$5.1 billion offer for rival UniFirst, and Houston oil refiner Philips 66 plans to buy distribution business EPIC NGL for US$2.2 billion.
Medical device maker Stryker has agreed to buy Inari Medical for US$4.9 billion and payroll services firm Paychex is buying Paycor in a US$4.1 billion deal.
Meanwhile, Anthropic was in talks to raise US$2 billion, valuing the AI startup at US$60 billion, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
International milk prices fell at the first Global Dairy Trade auction of the year, with the GDT price index down 1.4% and whole milk powder prices sliding 2.2% to US$3,804 a tonne.
The kiwi dollar traded at 56.45 US cents at 7am in Auckland from 56.61 cents yesterday. The local currency traded at 90.41 Australian cents from 90.43 cents after of the Australian consumer price index release for November, which is expected to show annual inflation at a 2.2% pace.
Reporting by Paul McBeth. Image from Ernie Journeys on Unsplash.
