Stocks drifted to a mixed close on Wall Street a day after sinking to one of their worst days of the year. The S&P 500 rose 5.64 points, or 0.1%, to 3,992.01. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 58.06 points, or 0.2%, to 32,798.40. The Nasdaq composite rose 45.67 points, or 0.4%, to 11,576. Stocks were coming off a sharp drop the prior day after the head of the Federal Reserve warned it could speed up its hikes to interest rates if pressure on inflation stays high. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said again Wednesday pressure on inflation seems to be running higher than expected, the AP reports. But he also stressed the Fed hasn’t made a decision on the size of future hikes. He said policy makers want to see what reports say in the run-up to their next meeting later this month.
That gave some solace to the market, which shuddered a day earlier on fears the Fed was set to increase the size of its rate hikes. "We’re not on a preset path, and we will be guided by the incoming data," Powell said. One report he highlighted in particular came out as he spoke Wednesday morning. It showed that the number of job openings advertised across the country last month remained higher than expected. Such data has become excruciatingly scrutinized on Wall Street because it can give a clue about where wages are heading for workers. While the higher-than-expected number of job openings could spook markets, the report also showed some signs of easing pressure, including fewer Americans quitting their jobs.
A separate report Wednesday suggested hiring is still stronger across US private employers than expected. It could offer a sneak peek of what another one of the reports highlighted by Powell could say. The government’s more comprehensive report on hiring is scheduled for Friday. On Wall Street, Tesla was one of the heaviest weights on the market after US regulators received two complaints that the steering wheel can come off its Model Y SUV while being driven. It dropped 3%. On the winning side was Campbell Soup, which rose 1.9% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than expected.
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