Wall Street falls as US central bank meeting in focus

Wall Street’s main indexes have fallen after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the US government could run out of money within a month while investors await the Federal Reserve’s policy decision.

The cost of insuring against a US default hit fresh highs as Yellen said the government will be unlikely to meet all payment obligations by “early June,” prompting President Joe Biden to summon four top congressional leaders to the White House next week.

“The consensus view is we will get some resolve on this… but the closer we get to that deadline without a resolve, there is a likelihood that this becomes more precarious for equity markets,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley Wealth.

The US central bank is expected to deliver a 25-basis-point rate increase on Wednesday and then hold rates steady for the rest of 2023, according to a Reuters poll.

“In large part, we’re looking at another wait-and-see day until we get to the Fed meeting,” Hogan added.

Worries about an economic downturn and concerns about stress in the banking sector have fuelled expectations of rate cuts in the latter half of the year.

However, with inflation running well over the central bank’s 2.0 per cent target and a still-strong labour market, chances of rate cuts seem less likely.

US stocks ended little changed on Monday following First Republic Bank’s weekend auction that led to a rout in the regional bank shares while JPMorgan Chase & Co gained after the largest US bank picked up the beleaguered lender’s assets.

With Monday’s manufacturing data giving the Fed enough room for more near-term tightening, all eyes will be on jobs and factory orders data after the opening bell.

In early trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 154.42 points, or 0.45 per cent, at 33,897.28, the S&P 500 was down 14.71 points, or 0.35 per cent, at 4,153.16, and the Nasdaq Composite was down 15.23 points, or 0.12 per cent, at 12,197.37.

Energy stocks were the worst hit in a broad-based market decline, followed by shares of material and industrial companies.

Analysts expect first-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies to fall 1.9 per cent from a year earlier following better-than-expected reports from some technology and growth giants, a sharp improvement from the 5.1 per cent drop expected at the start of April, according to Refinitiv data.

Pfizer Inc climbed 1.5 per cent after its first-quarter profit beat estimates, boosted by strong demand for its recently acquired products and pneumococcal vaccines.

Uber Technologies Inc jumped 6.4 per cent as the ride-hailing firm forecast quarterly core earnings above estimates.

Smaller rival Lyft Inc lost nearly 2.0 per cent.

Educational services company Chegg tanked 45.5 per cent on a downbeat second-quarter revenue forecast on increasing competition from ChatGPT.

Icahn Enterprises LP dropped 6.7 per cent after US short seller Hindenburg Research said it has a short position in activist investor Carl Icahn-controlled energy-to-pharma conglomerate.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 3.45-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 2.03-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 3 new 52-week highs and one new low while the Nasdaq recorded 13 new highs and 72 new lows.