U.S. stocks slipped Thursday as the market’s big burst following Donald Trump’s election continued to cool.
The S&P 500 fell 0.6%, though it’s still near its all-time high set on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 207 points, or 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 0.6%.
Cisco Systems’ 2.1% drop weighed on the market, even though the tech giant reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Investors may have been looking for it to raise its financial forecasts more, analysts suggested.
The stock market broadly has been rising faster than corporate profits, which raises the volume on criticism from skeptics that it’s gotten too expensive. The S&P 500 is still up nearly 25% for the year so far, on top of last year’s leap of 24.2%.
Some of the stocks that got the biggest bump from Trump’s election also lost momentum. Tesla fell 5.8% for just its second loss since Election Day. It’s run by Elon Musk, who has become a close Trump ally.
Smaller stocks also fell harder than the rest of the market, and the Russell 2000 index of small stocks lost 1.4%. It’s a turnaround from the election’s immediate aftermath, when the thought was that an “America First” president would benefit domestically focused companies more than big multinationals that could be hurt by tariffs and trade wars.
Even though Republicans have swept control of the White House, Senate and House of Representatives, which could give them more leeway to push through their policies, “promises made on the campaign trail may not be implemented immediately, with final legislation likely to be a pared-down version of the original proposals,” according to Solita Marcelli, chief investment officer, Americas, at UBS Global Wealth Management.
Stocks also felt the effects of swinging yields in the bond market following the latest hotter-than-expected economic reports and comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. The Fed just cut its main interest rate earlier this month for the second time this year to ease the pressure on the economy, and investors are eager for more.
But short-term yields climbed after Powell said, “The economy is not sending any signals that we need to be in a hurry to lower rates. The strength we are currently seeing in the economy gives us the ability to approach our decisions carefully.”
The two-year Treasury yield, which closely tracks expectations for Fed action, rose to 4.35% from 4.28% late Wednesday.
— Associated Press