US close: Stocks finish higher despite hawkish Fed

dl federal reserve bank of new york city nyc wall st street finance money dollars fed dollar us usa united states of america — New York Federal ReserveSharecast photo / Josh White

Wall Street stocks finished in the green on Wednesday, with the Nasdaq breaking its seven-day losing streak, even amid a whirlwind of hawkish Fedspeak.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.4% at 31,581.28, as the S&P 500 added 1.83% to 3,979.87 and the Nasdaq Composite was ahead 2.14% at 11,791.90.

The Dow closed 435.98 points higher on Wednesday, reversing the losses it recorded on Tuesday after the three-day Labor Day breather.

In focus was the Beige Book survey from the Federal Reserve, which showed the US economy expanding slightly through August, although it suggested a “generally weak” outlook for the year ahead.

The central bank’s vice-chair Lael Brainard also spoke during the day, telling a Clearing House and Bank Policy Institute conference that the Fed would raise and maintain higher interest rates in a bid to reassure markets that inflation would fall back to target.

“We are in this for as long as it takes to get inflation down,” Brainard said.

On the macro front, mortgage applications decreased 0.8% in the week ended 2 September, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association of America.

The refinance index slipped 1% from the previous week and 83% when compared to the same week a year earlier, while the seasonally adjusted purchase index decreased 1% week-on-week.

Elsewhere, data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis revealed the US trade balance narrowed by $10.2bn in July to a nine-month low of $70.7bn, with exports up 0.2% to a fresh record high of $259.3bn and imports slipping 2.9% to $329.9bn.

In equities, Globalstar slipped 1.44% even after it confirmed it would be the satellite operator for the new emergency location and communication service being debuted on Apple’s next generation of iPhones.

Apple itself was ahead 0.93% on the back of the iPhone 14, as well as a new model of AirPods Pro and three new Apple Watch products.

Elsewhere, big-box retailer Target jumped 4.41% after it said it would end its executive retirement policy, allowing 63-year-old chief executive Brian Cornell the chance to remain at the helm for another three years.

Reporting by Josh White at Sharecast.com. Additional reporting by Iain Gilbert.

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