Wall Street stocks zigzagged on Wednesday, while Treasury prices firmed, after a fresh batch of disappointing US data kept traders focused on the rising risks to the economic outlook.
The S&P 500, which dipped into bear market territory last week during a difficult few months for global equities, ticked up 0.3 per cent. The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.4 per cent.
The subdued trading on Wednesday came after a key proxy for future US manufacturing output missed Wall Street expectations.
Orders for long-lasting goods rose 0.4 per cent in April from the previous month, a slowdown from 0.6 per cent in March and below economists’ estimates collated by Refinitiv of a 0.6 per cent increase. A core reading that strips out transportation orders, which can skew the data, also missed forecasts, rising 0.3 per cent.
“Markets are telling us that the risks of a recession are rising,” said Mary Nicola, multi-asset portfolio manager at PineBridge Investments.
On the corporate front, Dicks Sporting Goods on Wednesday became the latest US consumer business to cut its earnings outlook, sending its shares falling around 10 per cent. This followed a bruising session across equity markets on Tuesday after social media group Snap warned on macroeconomic conditions, and investors took fright over disappointing US housing data and business surveys.
The Federal Reserve, which influences monetary policy worldwide and releases minutes of its early May rate-setting meeting later on Wednesday, has sent strong signals that it will raise borrowing costs until it has tamed inflation, which is running at four-decade highs. However, some analysts are questioning how far the US central bank is prepared to lift rates.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we started seeing more language about looking at the data,” said Salman Baig, portfolio manager at Unigestion.
“It’s unlikely to be a really meaningful shift at this point, as they are going to want some pretty clear indications that inflation has turned and we are not there yet.”
In fixed income markets, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which underpins borrowing costs worldwide and falls as the price of the debt instrument rises, dropped a further 0.03 percentage points to 2.73 per cent, around a one-month low.
The two-year Treasury yield, which tracks interest rate expectations, slipped 0.05 percentage points lower to 2.47 per cent, having risen above 2.8 per cent in early May.
Reflecting continued uncertainty about the direction of markets and monetary policy, the dollar index, which measures the US currency against six others, rose 0.5 per cent.
The euro lost 0.8 per cent against the dollar to just under $1.06, as a bounce fuelled by European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde signalling the end of negative interest rates in the eurozone faded out.
