Wall Street slipped Thursday on worries that a too-warm economy will push the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates higher for longer.
- The S&P 500 fell 14.34 points, or 0.3%, to 4,451.14.
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 57.54 points, or 0.2%, to 34,500.73.
- The Nasdaq composite fell 123.64 points, or 0.9%, to 13,748.83.
Stocks were feeling pressure from the bond market, where yields rose earlier in the week after a report showed stronger growth for US service industries last month than economists expected, per the AP. Yields remained high after a report on Thursday said fewer US workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than expected. Tech companies continued to suffer the most on fears of higher rates. Apple is the dominant force on Wall Street because it's the most valuable stock, and it fell 3.2% to follow up on its 3.6% drop a day before. Nvidia sank 2.6% to bring its loss for the week so far to 5.5%. It and a cohort of other stocks in the artificial-intelligence industry have soared this year on expectations that AI could mean explosive future growth in profits.
C3.ai tumbled 12.6% after it said late Wednesday that it no longer expects to be profitable in its final fiscal quarter of the year, as it invests more in opportunities around generative AI. Analysts also pointed to disappointing profit margin levels for the company during its latest quarter, which was the first of its fiscal year. While most stocks on Wall Street were falling, a handful were helping to limit the losses. WestRock, a maker of containerboard and other packaging, rose 4% after Smurfit Kappa Group said it was in discussions to combine the two companies and keep its headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. (More stock market stories.)