Stocks On Wall Street Turn Lower Rate Path Worries

Barry Adams
19 Aug, 2022
New York City

Stocks turned lower on Wall Street after inflation and higher rates worries resurfaced. 

The Fed's minutes of the latest meeting and comments from St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard seemed to indicate that the central bank will continue its campaign to lift rates at a faster pace, contradicting the hopes of a slower rate increase in the near-term. 

Tech stocks led decliners as investors avoided high growth stocks and the S&P 500 index is set to close down 1% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 2.2% for the week. 

The S&P 500 index fell 1.01% or 43.74 to 4,240.02 and the Nasdaq Composite index dropped 1.70% to 12,746.50.  

Futures of crude oil increased 61 cents to $91.11 a barrel and natural gas fell 8 cents to $9.11 a thermal unit. 

The yield on 10-year Treasury notes rose to 2.97% and 30-year Treasury bonds traded up 7 basis points to 3.22% and 2-year Treasury notes rose to 3.27%. 

Bed Bath & Beyond dropped 40.2% to $11.14 after investor Ryan Cohen sold his entire stake of 9.4 million shares and call options.  

Cohen's filings with the regulatory agency SEC shows that the stake in the homewares retailer was sold on Tuesday and Wednesday. 

According to the regulatory filings in March, Cohen, co-founder of Chewy.com and a board member of AMC, spent nearly $120 million in acquiring a stake in the retailer and sold his positions after five months in the low 20's, resulting in a profit of at least $60 million. 

Bill.com Holdings Inc rose 13% to $168.80 after the back-office software provider reported better-than-expected quarterly results. 

Revenues in the quarter ending in June soared 156% to $200.2 million. 

Net loss in the quarter surged to $84.9 million or $0.81 a share, basic and diluted, compared to net loss of $41.9 million or $0.48 per share,

The company forecasted fiscal 2023 first quarter revenues to fall between $208 million and $211 million, an increase between 76% and 78% from a year ago. 

Bill.com forecasted fiscal 2023 revenues in the range between $955.5 million and $973.5 million, representing an increase between 49% and 52%.  

Deere & Company declined 1.6% to $362.93 after the maker of industrial equipment reported higher sales but earnings were below expectations. 

Net revenues in the third quarter ending in July increased 22% to $14.1 billion

Net income in the fiscal third quarter increased to $1.88 billion or $6.16 a share compared to $1.67 billion or $5.32 a share.

The higher production costs nearly wiped out the price increase implemented by the company, but improved volume mixed lifted the earnings in the quarter. 

Deere also tightened its annual sales range between $7.0 billion and $7.2 billion from the previous range between $7.0 billion and $7.4 billion. 

Foot Locker, Inc soared 19.8% to $38.28 after the athletic footwear and apparel retailer posted better-than-expected results and announced the appointment of a new chief executive officer. 

Richard Johnson will be replaced by Mary Dillon, former chief executive of Ulta Beauty   on September 1. 

Madison Square Garden Entertainment Group rose 2.0% to $63.92 on the news that the company's board is looking to separate its live entertainment business and MSG Networks businesses.  

Ross Stores fell 2.1% to $90.01 after the discount retailer reported strong quarterly results but forecasted weaker annual outlook. 

The retailer said its quarterly results were impacted by increased promotional activities and higher product costs.