Wall Street Indexes Rest Near New Highs Amid Weakening Macroeconomic Backdrop

Barry Adams
19 Sep, 2025
New York City

Stock market indexes in New York rested Friday after scaling new record peaks in the previous session as the Fed delivered the widely anticipated rate cuts. 

The S&P 500 index decreased 0.1%, the Nasdaq Composite declined 0.2%, and the U.S. dollar remained under pressure.

Despite the exuberance on Wall Street, the broader economy is struggling because of reverse immigration, falling disposable income, rising food prices, and a rapidly cooling labor market.

Moreover, the housing market is struggling because of affordability issues and record-high prices across the top 50 metropolitan areas. 

Popular benchmark indexes are hovering at record highs, as the dominating allocation of big technology companies powers earnings growth. 

However, telecom, construction, agriculture and food processing, and retailers are reporting challenging market environments. 

Moreover, the broader economy has not felt the effect of Trump's trade tariffs because they went into effect only two weeks ago.

Foreign businesses are not lowering prices of goods exported to the U.S., as indicated by the latest PCE Price Index for imported goods, contradicting the claim often reiterated by the Trump administration officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant.

Hundreds of thousands of independent retailers and online merchants selling apparel and footwear, and manufacturing companies relying on imported intermediate products, are likely to close down by the end of the year because of aggressive and erratic tariff implementation.

 

U.S. Stock Movers 

Lennar Corp. fell 2.9% to $129.26 after the homebuilder's fiscal fourth-quarter outlook fell short of market expectations.

Consolidated revenue decreased to $8.8 billion from $9.4 billion, net income declined to $591 million from $1.16 billion, and diluted earnings per share fell to $2.29 from $4.26 a year ago.

For the fourth quarter, Lennar expects to secure between 20,000 and 21,000 new orders and deliver between 22,000 and 23,000 new homes. 

The average sales price is projected to range from $380,000 to $390,000.

FedEx Corp. gained 2.2% to $227.50 after the parcel delivery company reported better-than-expected results for the fiscal first quarter ending on August 31.

Consolidated revenue increased to $22.2 billion from $21.6 billion, net income advanced to $820 million from $790 million, and diluted earnings per share rose to $3.46 from $3.21 a year ago.

Scholastic Corp. dropped 10.5% to $24.64 after the education publisher reported a wider fiscal first quarter adjusted loss of $2.52 compared to $2.13 a year ago.