[New York Stock Market] Taking a Breather Before the Holiday... Nasdaq Down 0.68%

Profit-taking amid overlapping closures on Nemanyeo Day and Monday

The U.S. New York stock market closed lower on the 16th (local time) due to profit-taking ahead of the upcoming holiday next week.

On this day at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 108.94 points (0.32%) from the previous trading day to close at 34,299.12.

The Standard & Poor's 500 (S&P 500) index dropped 16.25 points (0.37%) from the previous session to 4,409.59, and the Nasdaq index closed down 93.25 points (0.68%) at 13,689.57 compared to the previous trading day.

Traders working on the floor of the NYSE (Photo by Reuters Yonhap News)

The S&P 500 index rose 2.6% over the week, marking its largest weekly gain since March. The Nasdaq index also increased about 3.3% over the week, showing its biggest weekly rise since March. The Nasdaq recorded an eight-week consecutive upward trend.

On the previous day, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indices hit their highest levels since April 2022, but they closed slightly lower on this day.

The market appears to be taking a breather after the Federal Reserve's (Fed) June Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) regular meeting.

This day was 'Quadruple Witching Day,' and with the upcoming market holiday on the 19th for 'Juneteenth Day,' market volatility was relatively high. Quadruple Witching Day is when futures and options for stock indices and individual stocks expire simultaneously. The 19th is Juneteenth Day, commemorating the emancipation of slaves, and the U.S. financial markets will be closed.

The Fed officials' final interest rate forecast stands at 5.6%, which is 0.50 percentage points higher than the previous forecast of 5.1%, but the market expects the rate hike magnitude to vary depending on the pace of inflation slowdown.

The University of Michigan's June consumer sentiment index recorded 63.9, surpassing the previous month's 59.2 and the market expectation of 60.2. This indicates that consumers' sentiment about the economy is stronger than expected. However, it remains significantly lower than the peak of 88.3 in 2021 and the pre-pandemic high of 101.

The one-year expected inflation rate was 3.3%, the lowest since March 2021, dropping sharply from 4.2% recorded the previous month. The five-year expected inflation rate fell to 3.0% from 3.1% the previous month.

Meanwhile, eight sectors within the S&P 500, excluding utilities, materials, and consumer staples, declined. Nvidia, which has surged nearly 200% this year due to the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, rose 11% just this week. On this day, it closed flat.

Microsoft's stock, which rose more than 6% this week and hit an all-time high the previous day, fell more than 1%.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.