US stocks closed higher on Wednesday, resuming a climb after snapping their longest win streak this year. Investors digested minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting that showed most officials favored a September rate cut if inflation continued to cool.
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose around 0.4%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) popped nearly 0.6%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) was about 0.1% higher.
Stocks are eyeing a return to recovery from an early August sell-off as focus intensifies on the labor market as a factor in the Fed’s policymaking, given inflation seems to be subsiding.
The minutes from the Fed meeting, which were the highlight of the afternoon, said that the "vast majority" of policymakers said it would "likely be appropriate to ease policy at the next meeting" if inflation data kept softening.
Earlier on Wednesday, new data showed the US economy employed 818,000 fewer people than originally reported as of March 2024, showing the labor market may have been cooling long before initially thought. But economists were pointed out the updated data still reflect a labor market that’s softening but not "rapidly deteriorating."
Investors are still largely treading cautiously ahead of Jerome Powell’s appearance at the Jackson Hole symposium on Friday. Expectations for a September rate cut are running high, and his comments will be closely watched for signs a 0.5% reduction is on the table.
In corporates, quarterly reports from Target (TGT) and Macy’s (M) shed light on the retail sector and the consumer before the bell. Target shares jumped after its earnings blew past Wall Street targets, but Macy’s shares sank after the retailer posted a sales drop. Target stock finished up more than 11% while Macy’s fell almost 13%.
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