U.S. Stocks Turn Lower On Earnings Recession Worries

Barry Adams
10 Apr, 2023
New York City

Stocks on Wall Street opened lower after recession worries resurfaced after a week of choppy trading. 

Last week, four separate reports on the labor market showed that the U.S. economy is still creating new jobs but at a slower pace and labor market conditions are tight. 

After a long weekend in today's session investors worried that slowing labor market expansion may forecast a rolling recession and despite the moderating price increases overall inflation is still significantly higher than the Fed's target rate. 

Investors are also awaiting the release of earnings from banks later in the week and JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup are scheduled to report earnings on Friday. 

In addition, investors are looking forward to the release of consumer price inflation data on Wednesday followed by the release of wholesale price inflation on Thursday. 

 

U.S. Indexes & Yields 

The S&P 500 index decreased 0.6% to 4,80.60 and the Nasdaq Composite index declined 1.2% to 11,940.88. 

The yield on 2-year Treasury notes inched up to 3.96%, 10-year Treasury notes advanced to 3.38% and 30-year Treasury bonds decreased to 3.58%. 

Crude oil edged down 31 cents to $80.36 a barrel and natural gas futures jumped 16 cents to $2.16 a thermal unit. 

 

U.S. Stock Movers 

Semiconductor stocks were in focus after Samsung said it plans to halt memory chip production in the near term after the weakness in demand for electronic and computing devices. 

Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg Co Ltd declined 1.8% to $88.60 after the company reported a decline in March sales. 

Revenue in March declined 10.9% from the previous month and plunged 15% fr.4om a year ago to NT$145.4 billion. 

Sales in the March quarter increased 3.6% to NT$508.6 billion. 

Micron Technology jumped 4.7% to $61.35 but Qualcomm Inc declined 1.2% to $121.50.  

Tesla Inc dropped 4% to $177.53 after the company said plans to cut vehicle prices again in China and build another factory to produce electric vehicle batteries. 

Capital One Financial Corp decreased 1.7% to $93.28 after the financial services company said in a regulatory filing that Walmart Inc is suing the company to end its partnership agreement.