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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during opening bell in New York City on August 21, 2023.
Angela Weiss | AFP | Getty Images
Stock futures fell slightly Wednesday after another positive session, marking the latest leg in an end-of-month rally as investors try to mitigate August’s losses.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 11 points, or 0.03%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures slipped 0.2% and 0.3%, respectively.
The moves followed a third consecutive winning session on Wall Street as investors made up some ground at the end of the month. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite added 1.7% in the session. The S&P 500 rose about 1.5%, notching its best performance since June. The Dow climbed nearly 0.9%.
Tuesday’s gains come on the back of data signaling the economy could be slowing. A Conference Board consumer sentiment index came in at 106.1, under the consensus estimate of 116 from economists polled by Dow Jones. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a decline in open job listings in July.
Meanwhile, the 2-year Treasury yield dropped on Tuesday. Any indication of a cooling economy can buoy investor hopes that the Federal Reserve could lighten its policy stance.
Tuesday’s “move goes back to a ‘bad news is good news’ type environment, which tends to be the case when investors are worried about rates and Fed policy,” said Sonu Varghese, global macro strategist at Carson Group. “Any softness in economic data results in less upward pressure on yields, and that helps equities.”
Despite the gains, the three major indexes remain on pace for losses in August with just two trading days left. The Nasdaq Composite is poised to end August 2.8% lower, while the Dow and S&P 500 are both slated for drops of around 2%.
Investors will watch on Wednesday for ADP’s jobs data, the first in a bevy of labor statistics coming over the course of this week. Jobless claims numbers are due Thursday, followed by data on nonfarm payrolls, wages and the unemployment rate on Friday.
Elsewhere, investors will keep an eye on GDP and pending home sales data expected Wednesday morning. Brown-Forman, which owns Jack Daniel’s whiskey, is slated to report quarterly earnings before the bell, followed by technology stocks Salesforce, CrowdStrike and Okta after the market closes.
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