The Dow Jones made a record high of 52,742, before cooling off nearly 350 points from those levels to end below the flat line. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite also cooled off 40 and 200 points from their respective intraday highs to end with losses of 0.2% and 0.7% respectively.
While AI-linked big-tech companies like Microsoft and Amazon fared well, chipmakers, particularly those who had a bumper second quarter, such as AMD, Micron and Intel, fell between 7% to 11% on Wednesday, thereby weighing on the Nasdaq 100, which fell 1.5%.
Kevin Warsh Promises Price Stability
In his first beyond-policy address at the ECB symposium, new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh said that prices currently are “too high” but inflation risks have come down over the last four weeks as oil prices have cooled off.
He also vowed that the Fed has signed up to deliver price stability and that remains their primary objective, while refraining from giving any forward guidance. The new Fed Chair went on to say that policymakers also agree that giving forward guidance is not suited in the current policy conjecture.
Addressing concerns surrounding the Fed’s independence, Warsh reiterated that the central bank remained an independent entity and will continue to remain one in the future as well.
Why Meta Shares Jumped 9% on Wednesday?
Shares of Meta Platforms outperformed its peers in mid-week trading after announcing that it is building out a new cloud business, where CNBC confirmed that it will be selling its excess computing power to outside customers.
According to a Bloomberg report, the company is still debating whether to offer access to AI models hosted on its infra or whether to just sell access to raw computing power.
Experts believe that by starting a cloud business, Meta could generate revenue on the capacity it does not use, and ease some of the mega capex plans announced for the year, amounting to over $145 billion.
While Meta shares jumped 9%, other neocloud companies such as CoreWeave and Nebius Group fell 12% each.
What Is The Big Wall Street Trigger On Thursday?
Since Friday will be a stock market holiday on Wall Street on account of Independence Day, the scheduled US jobs report will be reported later this evening.
Consensus estimates project non-farm payrolls to rise by 1,15,000 in June, while unemployment rate is likely to remain steady at 4.3%.
Along with the jobs report, jobless claims, factory orders and auto sales figures will also be reported today.
