ISTANBUL
US stocks closed mostly in the red at the midweek mark, as tech stocks continued to decline, extending losses suffered Tuesday.
The Nasdaq fell 0.67%, or 142.09 points, to 21,172.86, and the S&P 500 dropped 0.24%, or 15.59 points, to 6,395.78.
The Dow, on the other hand, inched up 0.04%, or 16.04 points, to close at 44,938.31.
The mostly negative course was fueled by the continued decline in tech stocks. Broadcom was off 1.3%, Palantir dropped 1.1% and Intel plummeted 7%.
Shares of Apple, Amazon, Alphabet and Meta also dropped.
Meanwhile, the minutes of the last meeting of the US Federal Reserve that were revealed Wednesday showed that officials were worried about the state of the economy, inflation and the labor market, even though the majority agreed that it was too soon to cut the policy rate.
“Participants generally pointed to risks to both sides of the Committee’s dual mandate, emphasizing upside risk to inflation and downside risk to employment,” the minutes noted.
While “a majority of participants judged the upside risk to inflation as the greater of these two risks,” a couple saw “downside risk to employment the more salient risk.”
In the last meeting, Governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman voted against the decision to hold the policy rate unchanged, stating that the Fed should start lowering the rate. The fed funds rate has been between the 4.25% and 4.5% range since December 2024.
It was the first time that more than one governor voted against a majority interest rate decision in more than 30 years.
The minutes were released ahead of Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s expected keynote speech Friday at the central bank’s annual symposium at Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
The chair is expected to deliver remarks and tips about the monetary policy path ahead.
Separately, US President Donald Trump demanded that Governor Lisa Cook resign following mortgage fraud allegations