US stocks closed slightly lower on Thursday after veering between gains and losses as investors gauged the latest round of economic data and the Federal Reserve’s policy statement against tariff concerns.
Selling pressure has intensified in recent weeks after a string of economic indicators signaled the economy and consumer sentiment may be cooling as the Trump administration imposes reciprocal trade tariffs.
Still, equities rose in three of the prior four sessions, with the benchmark S&P index rallying more than 1% on Wednesday after the Fed kept interest rates unchanged, as widely expected, and indicated two quarter-point interest-rate cuts were likely later this year, the same median forecast as three months ago.
The central bank also said it sees slower economic growth and at least temporarily higher inflation.
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“It is very volatile. The news is very volatile,” said Stephen Massocca, senior vice president at Wedbush Securities in San Francisco. “The market’s pretty focused on it and a lot of it’s going to depend on how certain news items play out over the next couple of weeks.”
“We’re putting a bottom in here, but when I survey the near-term news flow, I don’t have a lot of hope that we’re going to suddenly leap out of this,” he added.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 11.31 points, or 0.03%, to 41,953.32, the S&P 500 lost 12.40 points, or 0.22%, to 5,662.89 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 59.16 points, or 0.33%, to 17,691.63.
Economic data on Thursday showed weekly initial jobless claims increased slightly last week, although the outlook may be dimming due to government spending cuts, interest rate levels and policy uncertainty.
The Conference Board reported that a measure of future economic activity fell 0.3% in February after easing 0.2% in January.
Market participants are pricing in 63 basis points of cuts from the Fed this year, with 71% odds for a cut of at least 25 basis points at the June meeting, according to LSEG data.
Technology was among the weakest of the 11 major sectors and the biggest downside weight, while energy advanced as crude prices rose nearly 2% after the United States issued new Iran-related sanctions.
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