The stock market is back where it started.
The S&P 500 was down 0.1% after getting its head above water for a few gasps of air. The Nasdaq Composite was moving in and out of positive territory. The Dow was down 140 points, or 0.3%.
So what happened? First of all, the S&P and Nasdaq were never really rallying, just rising due to gains among some of their larger members. Market breadth has been bad all day, but now just 100 stocks in the S&P 500 are on track to close higher. The Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF is down 0.9%.
The producer price index for July was bad news for those banking on a half-point interest-rate cut in September. It also sowed doubt about the potential for consumer price inflation to pick up in August and September.
Still, there are plenty of economic data releases between now and the Fed’s mid-September meeting. This one report wasn’t a reason to panic sell, but the market is looking for a catalyst at a time when two of the big indexes have been ripping off record close after record close.
The PPI, in the absence of any obvious good news, was reason enough for some on Wall Street take profits.
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