US stocks weakened today as investors await, among other things, the financial results of chipmaker Nvidia and new data on price developments in the United States. The Dow Jones index, which includes the shares of 30 leading US companies, lost 0.77 percent to 45,282.47 points. The broader S&P 500 index fell 0.43 percent to 6,439.32 points, and the Nasdaq Composite index, which includes many companies from the advanced technology sector, fell 0.22 percent to 21,449.29 points.
Price index
Nvidia will release its quarterly results on Wednesday, with its shares rising about 1% today. However, shares in beverage company Keurig Dr Pepper fell 11.5% after reports that the company had agreed to acquire Dutch coffee maker JDE Peet’s for €15.7 billion (CZK 385 billion).
On Friday, the US government will release data on the US personal consumption expenditure price index, which is the preferred inflation indicator for the US Federal Reserve (Fed). A week later, the government will release a report on the labor market. These data will be important for the further development of monetary policy in the US.
Interest rate cuts
On the foreign exchange market, the dollar strengthened today after Friday’s slump, which was caused by Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s comments signaling a cut in interest rates next month. At around 10 p.m. CEST, the euro was down about 0.9 percent against the dollar, hovering around USD 1.1615.
On Friday, the single European currency climbed to a four-week high of USD 1.1742, Reuters reported. Powell pointed on Friday to the growing risk of adverse developments in the US labor market. This reinforced expectations that the Fed will support the economy by easing monetary policy at its September meeting. Leading financial institutions, including Barclays, BNP Paribas, and Deutsche Bank, now expect the US central bank to cut interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point next month.
Source: ČTK
