Stock Market Today: S&P 500, Nasdaq Extend Losing Streaks
The two indexes have closed lower for five straight sessions.
Stocks went on a roller-coaster ride Thursday with up-and-down price action sparked by a fresh round of corporate earnings and hawkish Fed commentary.
After spending time in both positive and negative territory today, the Nasdaq Composite closed down 0.5% at 15,601 and the S&P 500 shed 0.2% to 5,011 – a fifth straight loss for both indexes. The Dow Jones Industrial Average eked out a 0.06% gain to 37,775.
Helping boost the main indexes early on was strength in several Magnificent 7 stocks. Notably, Meta Platforms (META) gained 1.5% after the Facebook parent launched Llama 3, its generative artificial intelligence (AI) assistant.
Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free E-Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.
Alphabet (GOOGL) was also in the green, adding 0.4% after the company said it is reorganizing areas of Google to have a stronger focus on AI.
Deutsche Bank thinks Tesla can fall another 18%
Tesla (TSLA), on the other hand, fell 3.6% after Deutsche Bank analyst Emmanuel Rosner downgraded the electric vehicle (EV) stock to Hold from Buy. The analyst also cut his price target to $123 from $189, representing implied downside of 18% to current levels.
Rosner says delays of Tesla's next-generation Model 2 vehicle beyond 2025 create "the risk of no new EVs to the company's lineup for the foreseeable future." The analyst adds that Elon Musk's recent announcement that the company's Robotaxi will be unveiled in early August "in no way means the technology is ready."
Today's loss is just more of the same for Tesla stock. Not only has it closed lower for five straight days, but it's down 37% for the year-to-date – the most of any Mag 7 stock. At today's close, Tesla's market valuation was $478 billion, equivalent to the market cap of discount retail giant Walmart (WMT, -0.7%).
Chip stocks swoon after Taiwan Semiconductor earnings
In other single-stock news, Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) fell 4.9% after the chip manufacturer reported Q1 earnings. While TSM beat top- and bottom-line estimates, a lower-than-anticipated outlook for the global chip market spooked investors.
Several other semiconductor stocks, including Arm Holdings (ARM, -2.5%), Broadcom (AVGO, -1.8%) and Intel (INTC, -1.8%), fell in sympathy with TSM.
Fed officials talk interest rates
Also in focus Thursday were speeches from a handful of Federal Reserve officials – many of whom echoed the "higher-for-longer" outlook Fed Chair Powell gave earlier this week.
Among them was New York Fed President John Williams, who said in a panel discussion in Washington D.C., that he doesn't "feel urgency to cut rates." Williams added that "at some point," the central bank will want to start cutting interest rates, but "the timing of that is driven by the economy."
The next Fed meeting kicks off on April 30. A steady stream of economic data signaling persistent inflation and a strong labor market has made it all but certain the Fed will keep the federal funds rate at its current 23-year high. And according to CME Group's FedWatch Tool, futures traders are pricing in low expectations of any rate cuts coming at all this year.
Related content
To continue reading this article
please register for free
This is different from signing in to your print subscription
Why am I seeing this? Find out more here
With over a decade of experience writing about the stock market, Karee Venema is the senior investing editor at Kiplinger.com. She joined the publication in April 2021 after 10 years of working as an investing writer and columnist at Schaeffer's Investment Research. In her previous role, Karee focused primarily on options trading, as well as technical, fundamental and sentiment analysis.
-
Federal Reserve Meeting: Updates
Investors of all kinds are eagerly awaiting news from the Federal Reserve meeting. Here is live updates and commentary from Kiplinger experts.
By Dan Burrows Published
-
Amazon Stock Jumps as Cloud Growth Fuels Blowout Quarter
Amazon beat expectations for the first quarter and the Dow Jones stock is soaring. Here's what you need to know.
By Joey Solitro Published
-
Amazon Stock Jumps as Cloud Growth Fuels Blowout Quarter
Amazon beat expectations for the first quarter and the Dow Jones stock is soaring. Here's what you need to know.
By Joey Solitro Published
-
Federal Reserve Meeting: Live Updates
Investors of all kinds are eagerly awaiting news from the Federal Reserve meeting. Here is live updates and commentary from Kiplinger experts.
By Dan Burrows Published
-
Philips CPAP Settlement: What to Know
Philips agreed to a $1.1 billion settlement over CPAP and ventilator machines.
By Alexandra Svokos Published
-
Stock Market Today: Stocks Sell Off Ahead of Fed Decision
Stocks sold off sharply Tuesday as anxiety set in ahead of Wednesday's policy statement from the Federal Reserve.
By Karee Venema Published
-
McDonald's Stock Struggles After Rare Earnings Miss
McDonald's stock is choppy Tuesday after a mixed first-quarter earnings report. Here's what you need to know.
By Joey Solitro Published
-
Eli Lilly Stock Surges on Demand for Weight-Loss Drugs
Eli Lilly beat earnings expectations for the first quarter and raised its outlook for the year.
By Joey Solitro Published
-
3M Stock Is Higher Despite Its Dividend Cut. Here's Why
3M is snapping its decades-long streak of dividend hikes, yet it's the best Dow Jones stock Tuesday. Here's what you need to know.
By Joey Solitro Published
-
Stock Market Today: Markets Post Broad-Based Gains Thanks to Mega-Cap Tech
Stocks get help from a couple of laggard Magnificent 7 stocks.
By Dan Burrows Published