NEW YORK, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) — U.S. stocks ended mixed on Friday, as the initial excitement over the first major easing of interest rate policy began to wane. Wall Street is now grappling with concerns about whether the Federal Reserve is lagging in steering the economy toward a “soft landing.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 38.17 points, or 0.09 percent, to 42,063.36, after notching its biggest daily percentage gain since mid-August. The S&P 500 sank 11.09 points, or 0.19 percent, to 5,702.55. The Nasdaq Composite Index shed 65.66 points, or 0.36 percent, to 17,948.32.
Eight of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors ended in red, with industrials and materials leading the laggards by losing 0.69 percent and 0.64 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, utilities and communication services led the gainers by rising 2.69 percent and 0.45 percent, respectively.
“The market is still trying to recalibrate because, yes, there were some market participants that may have expected 50 basis points, but a lot of people didn’t,” said Sid Vaidya, U.S. chief wealth strategist at TD Wealth in New York.
“You have to be a little bit more selective and measured just because we are expecting growth to slow down a little bit and valuations, especially in large-cap growth, are a bit stretched, so you want to be a bit selective,” he said.
In corporate news, FedEx reported a significant profit decline in its after-hours release on Thursday, missing Wall Street expectations. As a key economic indicator, the delivery company’s shares plummeted by as much as 15.23 percent.
Intel shares surged over 3.31 percent on Friday afternoon after The Wall Street Journal reported that semiconductor company Qualcomm had recently approached Intel regarding a potential takeover deal. Following the news, Qualcomm’s stock dropped by 2.87 percent.
