S&P 500 falls on light volumes ahead of Thanksgiving

Investing.com -- US stocks drifted lower Wednesday, as stronger inflation data and cautions trading ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday weighed.   .

At 1:03 p.m. ET (18:03 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 102 points, or 0.3%, while the S&P 500 index dropped 0.5% and the NASDAQ Composite slipped 0.9%. 

Trading volumes are likely to be muted Wednesday, ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday and the early close on Black Friday. PCE inflation data above Fed's 2% target 

The PCE price index for October came in as expected, with the annual figure climbing 2.3%, while the core PCE price index , the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, rose 2.8% in October, considerably above the Fed’s 2% annual target.

Recent signs of sticky US inflation have sparked some doubts over just how much the Fed will cut interest rates further, and markets have begun questioning the prospect of a 25 basis point cut in December.

These doubts were furthered by the release of strong economic numbers earlier Wednesday, suggesting that the US economy was in a healthy enough sate to cope with interest rates at current levels.

Weekly claims for first-time unemployment benefits dipped to 213,000 from a revised lower 215,000 in the prior week, with claims steadily retreating from the near 1-1/2-year high seen in early October, while the US economy  grew at a unrevised 2.8% annualized rate in the third quarter, well above what Federal Reserve officials regard as the non-inflationary growth rate of around 1.8%.

The Federal Reserve is likely to cut interest rates in December before switching to a slower pace of cuts in 2025, UBS said in note, stating that US economic growth was likely to remain strong. 

The Swiss bank’s base case is for a 25 basis point cut in December, after which the Fed is expected to cut rates once per quarter in 2025. 

“While we expect somewhat more moderate GDP growth in the quarters ahead, Fed rate cuts should help to keep the expansion going,” UBS analysts wrote in a note.  Disappointing corporate results 

On the corporate front, HP (NYSE:HPQ ) slid 12% after the information technology company issued disappointing guidance for 2025, while Dell Technologies (NYSE:DELL ) tumbled over 10% after the PC manufacturer offered up a disappointing revenue outlook for the current quarter despite bullish commentary from the company on AI sales growth.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY ) fell 5% as the cloud-based business applications company issued disappointing subscription revenue guidance, hit by weaker client spending on its human capital management software.

Despite the guidance cut, Workday's valuations remains too good to ignore, analysts from Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS ) said in a Wednesday, citing improving market conditions.

(Peter Nurse, Ambar Warrick contributed to this article.) 

Source: Investing.com