Wall Street weakened Wednesday to worsen what's already been a messy August. The S&P 500 fell 33.53, or 0.8%, to 4,404.33, following up on its prior day's tumble of 1.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 180.65 points, or 0.5%, to 34,765.74, and the Nasdaq composite dropped 156.42, or 1.1%, to 13,474.63 . Bond yields climbed more following the afternoon release of the minutes from the Fed's latest meeting, the AP reports. The minutes suggested Fed officials are unsure about their next move after catapulting the main interest rate they control to its highest level in more than two decades.
Hopes had been rising among investors that last month's rate hike by the Fed would prove to be its last. High rates work to grind down inflation by bluntly slowing the entire economy and hurting investment prices. The Fed's minutes showed that officials still don't think the job on inflation is done but that they also acknowledge the risk of going too far and torpedoing the economy. They said they'll make upcoming decisions based on what data reports about inflation and the economy tell them. Some analysts took the minutes as a suggestion that another rate hike is possible, while others said it shows the Fed is likely done hiking.
Big technology stocks and other investments seen as particularly vulnerable to higher rates were some of the day's heaviest weights on indexes. Tesla fell 3.2%. Facebook's parent, Meta Platforms, dropped 2.5%, and Amazon fell 1.9%. Target and TJX, the company behind T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, were pushing upward on the market. Target rose 3% and TJX climbed 4.2% after both reported stronger profit for the spring than analysts expected.
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Progressive jumped 8.9% for the biggest gain in the S&P 500 after reporting its results for July, and other insurers also rallied to help lead the market. Intel's stock fell 3.6% after it and Tower Semiconductor agreed to call of Intel's $5.4 billion buyout of the Israeli chip makers. The deal faced resistance from Chinese regulators. (More stock market stories.)
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