Friday’s trading session on Wall Street was a tale of muted movement, with major indices hovering in negative territory at midday. The day coincided with the ‘triple witching’ event, a quarterly occurrence where a large volume of options and futures contracts expire simultaneously. This event is typically associated with increased market volatility, but this time, stocks only edged slightly lower, failing to ignite a surge in the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX).
Investor sentiment remained cautious, with a clear bearish bias evident in the performance of the S&P 500 sectors. Ten out of eleven sectors ended the day in the red, with only the Utilities sector bucking the trend and posting a positive gain.
Adding to the cautious mood, dovish comments from Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller fueled speculation about potential rate cuts. Waller indicated that he expects “very low” August Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) data, which is a key inflation indicator. He further hinted at the possibility of a 25 basis point rate cut in the next meeting or two if the economic data continues to align with expectations. A more substantial cut could be on the table if the labor market weakens and inflation cools down more rapidly.
Waller’s comments sent gold prices soaring past $2,600 per ounce, establishing a new all-time high. Meanwhile, Bitcoin remained stable at $63,000.
Here’s a breakdown of the major indices and their performance on Friday:
*
Dow Jones:
42,015.17 (0.0% change)*
S&P 500:
5,700.41 (-0.2% change)*
Nasdaq 100:
19,771.36 (-0.3% change)*
Russell 2000:
2,237.55 (-0.7% change)The performance of major ETFs also reflected the subdued market mood:
*
SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY):
-0.5% to $567.92*
SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA):
-0.2% to $420.43*
Invesco QQQ Trust Series (QQQ):
-0.3% to $481.96*
iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM):
-0.7% to $222.50*
Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLU):
+2.1%*
Industrials Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLI):
-0.7%Among the day’s notable stock movers, FedEx Corp. (FDX) saw a significant 13.6% drop following its disappointing quarterly earnings report. Lennar Corp. (LEN) also experienced a decline of over 4% in response to its earnings release. On the positive side, Nike Inc. (NKE) rose over 6% after announcing the appointment of Elliot Hill as its new CEO.
