The last session of the week starts off with a negative pitch for Wall Street. All major indices (Dow Jones -0.88%, S&P 500 -0.9% and Nasdaq -0.55%) follow up yesterday’s fall. The echo of Jerome Powell’s words can still be heard. The Federal Reserve chairman hinted yesterday that the rate hike cycle will be faster, adding that a 50 basis point squeeze will be on the table at the next meeting in May. He is the words that have pushed US Treasury rates with a ten-year maturity to new records since the end of 2018, not far from the 3% threshold.
Among the individual stocks is GAP’s 20% slump after the apparel retailer cut its forecast for quarterly sales. Almost -6% instead for Verizon Communications which recorded a loss of 36,000 monthly telephone subscribers in the quarter. On the other hand, Snap rose slightly (+ 0.3%). The social media company estimates Q2 daily active users to be between 343 million and 345 million, above Wall Street estimates.