Wall Street ends lower as investors digest economic data

Dec 9 (Reuters) – Wall Street ended lower on Friday as investors weighed economic data and awaited a potential 50 basis point rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve at its policy meeting next week, while clothing company Lululemon fell after a disappointing earnings forecast.

U.S. producer prices rose slightly more than expected in November amid a jump in the cost of services, but the trend is moderating, with annual factory-gate inflation showing the smallest increase in 1-1/2 years, data showed.

“Today’s data shows that inflation is coming down, but it’s lingering and stickier than most people think,” said Anthony Saglimbene, market strategist at Ameriprise Financial in Troy, Michigan. In December, however, consumer sentiment improved, while inflation expectations eased to a 15-month low, a University of Michigan survey showed.

Futures trade suggests a 77% chance the Fed will raise interest rates by 50 basis points next week, with a 23% chance of a 75 basis point increase, with those odds little changed after Friday’s economic data.

November consumer price data, due on Tuesday, will provide new clues about the central bank’s monetary tightening plans.

Lululemon Athletica Inc ( LULU.O ) fell nearly 13% after the Canadian sportswear maker forecast lower-than-expected revenue and profit in the holiday quarter.

Netflix Inc ( NFLX.O ) gained 3.1% after Wells Fargo upgraded the video streaming giant to “overweight” from “equal weight”.

The S&P 500 fell 0.73% to end the session at 3,934.38 points.

The Nasdaq fell 0.70% to 11,004.62 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.90% to 33,476.46 points.

Of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes, 10, led lower by energy (.SPNY), fell 2.33%, followed by a 1.28% loss in health care (.SPXHC).

The energy index recorded a seventh straight session of losses, the longest losing streak since December 2018, when oil prices appeared poised for recessionary weekly losses.

Wall Street’s main indexes have fallen this week after recording two straight weekly gains. The fear of a potential recession next year is weighing heavily on investors due to the central bank’s extended rate hikes.

For the week, the S&P 500 fell 3.4%, the Dow lost 2.8% and the Nasdaq fell 4%.

US stocks ended a recent streak of losses on Thursday after data showed initial jobless claims rose modestly last week.

Broadcom Inc ( AVGO.O ) rose 2.6% after the chipmaker forecast revenue for the current quarter above Wall Street estimates.

Boeing Co climbed 0.3% after Reuters reported the planemaker plans to announce a deal with United Airlines ( UAL.O ) for 787 Dreamliner orders next week.

Declining stocks outnumbered advancing ones within the S&P 500 (.AD.SPX) by a ratio of 3.3 to one.

S&P 500 posted 5 new highs and 1 new low; The Nasdaq recorded 54 new highs and 213 new lows.

Volume on US exchanges was relatively light, with 9.9 billion shares traded, compared with an average of 10.9 billion shares over the previous 20 sessions.

Reporting by Sruthi Shankar, Ankika Biswas and Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi, Sriraj Kalluvila, Shounak Dasgupta and Aurora Ellis

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