US open: Stocks sharply lower following Fed rate decision

Wall Street stocks were firmly in the red early on Thursday after the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates by 75 basis points overnight.

As of 1525 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 2.38% at 29,938.34, while the S&P 500 was 3.04% weaker at 3,674.71 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 3.65% softer at 10,694.50.

The Dow opened 730.19 points lower on Thursday, more than erasing games recorded in the previous session after the Fed implemented its largest interest rate hike since 1994.

Fed chairman Jerome Powell said Wednesday's interest rate hike was "clearly" an "unusually large one" but added that he did not expect "moves of this size" to be common. Stocks traded higher after Powell signalled that a 50 or 75-basis point increase "seems most likely" at the central bank's next meeting in July but cautioned that decisions would continue to be made on a "meeting by meeting" basis.

However, decisions by other central banks to adopt a more aggressive monetary policy stance weighed on sentiment at the open, with the Swiss National Bank raising rates for the first time in 15 years and the Bank of England raising rates for a fifth straight time.

On the macro front, the number of Americans filing for jobless claims for the first time was little changed last week. According to the Department of Labor, in seasonally adjusted terms, initial unemployment claims dipped by 3,000 to reach 229,000 over the week ending on 11 June. Economists had forecast a decline to 220,000.

Elsewhere, manufacturing activity in the US mid-Atlantic region softened a tad in June as firms received fewer new orders, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's factory sector index, which slipped from a reading of 2.6 in May to -3.3. Economists had pencilled-in a reading of 5.0.

Finally, building permits in the US, a proxy for future construction, fell 7% to an annualised rate of 1.69m in May, according to the Census Bureau, the lowest reading since September 2021 and well below forecasts of 1.78m.

In the corporate space, retailer Kroger beat expectations with its first-quarter earnings ahead of the bell on Thursday, leading the group to raise full-year guidance.

Still to come, Adobe will publish its latest set of quarterly earnings after the close.

Dow Jones - Risers

Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $133.10 0.45%
Walmart Inc. (WMT) $119.64 0.21%
Honeywell International Inc. (HON) $230.94 0.00%
Dowdupont Inc. (DWDP) $30.52 0.00%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $168.99 -0.59%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $59.10 -0.96%
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $236.35 -1.07%
Boeing Co. (BA) $132.28 -1.08%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $83.67 -1.13%
Amgen Inc. (AMGN) $232.37 -1.36%

Dow Jones - Fallers

American Express Co. (AXP) $138.93 -4.99%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $108.70 -4.18%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $157.52 -4.10%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $198.23 -3.77%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $280.18 -3.41%
Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) $55.46 -3.40%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $130.93 -3.33%
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) $39.40 -3.28%
Visa Inc. (V) $189.74 -3.27%
Salesforce.Com Inc. (CRM) $163.05 -3.26%

S&P 500 - Risers

CF Industries Holdings Inc. (CF) $92.85 0.85%
Dollar General Corp (DG) $233.85 0.69%
Twitter Inc (TWTR) $38.21 0.58%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $133.10 0.45%
Church Dwight Co Inc. (CHD) $81.74 0.29%
Walmart Inc. (WMT) $119.64 0.21%
AutoZone Inc. (AZO) $2,015.66 0.09%
Fortune Brands & Home Security (FBHS) $58.93 0.00%
Kansas City Southern (KSU) $293.59 0.00%
People's United Financial Inc. (PBCT) $19.41 0.00%

S&P 500 - Fallers

Carnival Corp. (CCL) $8.94 -9.20%
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NCLH) $10.70 -8.78%
Royal Caribbean Cr (RCL) $36.50 -8.04%
Macy's Inc. (M) $20.18 -7.92%
Synchrony Financial (SYF) $28.17 -7.53%
Arconic Inc. (ARNC) $25.74 -7.38%
Capital One Financial Corp. (COF) $100.24 -7.33%
Apache Corp. (APA) $42.31 -7.27%
Celanese Corp. (CE) $124.93 -7.03%
Ralph Lauren Corp (RL) $89.14 -7.02%

Nasdaq 100 - Risers

Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ALXN) $182.50 0.00%
Cerner Corp. (CERN) $94.92 0.00%
Shire Plc Ads (SHPG) $179.20 0.00%
Xilinx Inc. (XLNX) $194.92 0.00%
Maxim Integrated Products Inc. (MXIM) $0.00 0.00%
Mylan Inc. (MYL) $0.00 0.00%
Celgene Corp. (CELG) $108.24 0.00%
Vodafone Group Plc ADS (VOD) $15.44 -0.23%
Mondelez International Inc. (MDLZ) $58.75 -0.49%
Kraft Heinz Co. (KHC) $35.94 -0.68%

Nasdaq 100 - Fallers

NetEase Inc. Ads (NTES) $94.82 -7.98%
Mercadolibre Inc. (MELI) $620.45 -7.92%
Qurate Retail Inc. (QRTEA) $3.22 -7.76%
QUALCOMM Inc. (QCOM) $122.61 -6.62%
American Airlines Group (AAL) $12.43 -6.54%
Seagate Technology Plc (STX) $71.65 -6.30%
Western Digital Corp. (WDC) $46.93 -6.27%
Tesla Inc (TSLA) $657.12 -6.07%
Trip.com Group Limited (TCOM) $20.64 -5.98%
Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) $156.27 -5.76%