NEW YORK: Wall Street’s main indexes fell on Wednesday as growing tensions in the Middle East dented risk sentiment, with investors also focused on earnings to gauge the impact of inflation and high interest rates on businesses.
US President Joe Biden pledged solidarity with Israel, at what became the only stop of a Middle East mission derailed by a massive explosion at a Gaza hospital, which Biden said appeared to have been caused by Israel’s foes.
Demand for safe-haven assets sent gold prices to a more than two-month high, up over 1%, while the US dollar also strengthened.
“Gold has been holding with safe haven demand and even though Treasuries aren’t doing the greatest, the dollar has been faring fairly well with the increased tensions over there,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management.
Long-dated Treasury yields hit multi-year highs after a sharp rebound in US homebuilding added to earlier data pointing to a resilient economy, fueling concerns the Federal Reserve would not cut rates anytime soon.
“The macro environment of the economy is settling; we’re realizing we will likely be in this higher rate environment for a more prolonged period of time,” said Chris Giamo, head of commercial banking at TD Bank.
Stronger crude prices pushed energy stocks 1% higher, while industrials and materials led the decline in major S&P 500 sectors.
On the earnings front, Morgan Stanley’s third-quarter profit dropped less than expected as a strong performance in its wealth management division offset a hit from a lull in dealmaking. The company’s shares, however, fell 7.6% to a more than one-year low.
Philadelphia Fed president Patrick Harker said in an interview to the Wall Street Journal that the central bank should extend its pause on rate increases.
At 11:29 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 169.41 points, or 0.50%, at 33,828.24, the S&P 500 was down 32.23 points, or 0.74%, at 4,340.97, and the Nasdaq Composite was down 118.95 points, or 0.88%, at 13,414.80.
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