Wall Street closed lower on Aug 28 as renewed expectations of a Federal Reserve (Fed) rate hike, weakness in major chip stocks and steep losses in PayPal weighed on sentiment.
According to Reuters, the S&P 500 fell 0.25% to 7,711.76, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.52% to 26,402.42. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.02% to 53,559.99.
Investors turned more cautious after Fed Chair Kevin Warsh reiterated the central bank’s commitment to bringing inflation back towards its 2% target, prompting traders to increase bets on a possible September rate hike.
Technology stocks also came under pressure as chip shares pulled back following the previous session’s rally. Nvidia fell 4.6%, while Marvell Technology tumbled 10.3% amid concerns over the timing of revenue from its artificial intelligence chip agreement with Google.
PayPal was another major laggard, plunging 12.7% following a report that a consortium involving Advent and Stripe had abandoned its pursuit of the payments company.
The losses were partly offset by gains among several megacap stocks. Alphabet rose 1.7%, Apple gained 1.6% and Salesforce advanced 1.6%.
Gap surged nearly 13%, while Ulta Beauty fell 4.2%.
Market breadth remained negative, with declining stocks outnumbering gainers by 1.77-to-1 on the New York Stock Exchange and 2.19-to-1 on the Nasdaq.
Despite the losses on Aug 28, the major indexes ended the week higher, with the S&P 500 gaining 0.49%, the Nasdaq rising 0.85% and the Dow advancing 0.53%.
