Stocks were muted Wednesday as market participants weighed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's latest comments on future monetary policy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell nearly 75 points, while the S&P 500 closed at a negative flatline and the Nasdaq Composite rose about 0.3%.
Here's how the market settled on Wednesday:
S&P 500 Index
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Nasdaq Composite Index
Powell on Wednesday said there is more monetary restrictions ahead, including possible interest rate hikes, during a ECB forum on central banking. He said the "very strong labor market" is one of the major driving factors behind the need for more aggressive monetary policy to help stabilize prices. Powell also stressed that bring inflation down to the Fed's target of 2% is "going to take some time," as "inflation has proven to be more persistent than we expected."
"Of course, if that day comes when [inflation] turns around, that'll be great. But we don't expect that," Powell added.
Elsewhere, Nvidia
In economic news, U.S. wholesale inventories ticked down 0.1% month-over-month in May, according to the Commerce Department, falling from April's downwardly revised decline of 0.3%. Annually, wholesale inventories rose 3.6% in May, reflecting an increase in spending by consumers and businesses. Separately, the U.S. trade deficit shrank to $91.1 billion in May, coming in below estimates and April's reading of $97.1 billion.
In single-stock news, Pinterest
"We believe Pinterest is making the optimal strategic move to outsource monetization to third-parties to overcome its attribution and scale challenges," analyst Ken Gawrelski wrote. "This includes an announced partnership with Amazon, now expected to be live in time for the 2023 holiday season, and future expected partnerships with other scaled retail media networks."
Anheuser-Busch
Last week, Deutsche Bank said Anheuser-Busch is at an "attractive entry point," with analyst Mitch Collett upgrading the stock to Buy, citing a report where the firm concluded that the stock is headed towards "outperformance" if U.S. sales improve.
Looking ahead, market participants are gearing up for more inflation data later in the week for more clues on the Fed's next monetary policy decision due in the coming weeks.