Lululemon Athletica’s stock price fell 6.7% after chief product officer San Cho announced he would be leaving the company this month to “pursue other opportunities.” The company announced a new organizational structure that will not replace the chief product officer role.
These helped counter a 31.8% surge for Petco Health & Wellness, which reported latest quarterly earnings and revenue that beat analysts’ concerns.
TJX, an off-price retailer of clothing and household goods, beat profit expectations and rose 6.9%. The company, which operates TJ Maxx and Marshalls, also raised its full-year earnings per share outlook, saying prices are helping it attract customers.
The company’s main earnings report will be released after the close of trading on the day, at a time when analysts expect Nvidia to post its latest quarterly growth thanks to surging demand for chips used in artificial intelligence technology.
Nvidia’s stock is the third-fastest growing stock on Wall Street, making it one of the most influential stocks on the market. In order to sustain the stock market’s enthusiasm for AI, it is necessary to continue producing results.
In the bond market, Treasury yields were rising ahead of the afternoon release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s last meeting. Recent reports that inflation and parts of the U.S. economy are softening have reignited hopes that the Fed could cut its key interest rate at least once this year.
Fed officials said in recent speeches that while the reports were encouraging, the data would need to improve for several more months to lower the federal funds rate from its highest level in more than 20 years. The Fed is trying to successfully walk the tightrope of slowing the economy through high interest rates high enough to control inflation, but not enough to cause a deep recession.
Rising interest rates are making everything from credit card bills to car loan payments more expensive. Mortgage rates are also high, and a report on Wednesday showed that existing home sales fell more than economists expected last month.
Bank of America strategist Athanasios Vambakidis said central banks around the world appear to be willing to cut interest rates, but given the strength of the economy and still-high inflation rates, “it’s unlikely to go that far.” “I might not be able to make it.” He said in a report from BofA Global Research that he expects any rate cuts to be shallow and that they may come later than financial markets expect.
The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury rose to 4.43% from 4.41% late Tuesday.
Overseas stock markets, indexes were slightly lower in most of Europe and Asia.
London’s FTSE 100 index fell 0.8% after the Office for National Statistics reported a higher-than-expected inflation rate, damaging hopes for a June interest rate cut. Tokyo’s Nikkei stock average fell 0.8% after Japan reported an increase in its trade deficit last month.
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Associated Press writers Matt Ott and Zimo Zhong contributed.
