Thursday could turn out to be an important day for the financial markets, with Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan set to testify on Capitol Hill and Intel slated to deliver its mid-quarter update after the close.
Investors are hoping that Greenspan will signal that the Fed’s interest rate hikes will soon end amid signs of an economic slowdown, but comments from Fed officials have been mixed in recent days, adding to uncertainty ahead of Greenspan’s testimony.
Investors are hoping that Intel will echo Texas Instruments’ bullish comments Tuesday on the state of the chip industry. Analysts are looking for earnings of 28 cents a share on revenues of $8.97 billion from Intel for the June quarter.
A stock market rally lost steam Wednesday after the White House lowered growth estimates and raised inflation estimates, adding to interest rate fears ahead of Greenspan’s testimony Thursday.
The Nasdaq lost 7 to 2060, the S&P slipped 2 to 1194, and the Dow gave back 6 to 10,476. Volume declined to 1.69 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.65 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led 18-14 on the NYSE, and 17-12 on the Nasdaq. Downside volume was 55% on the NYSE, and 60% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 142-32 on the NYSE, and 67-43 on the Nasdaq.
Texas Instruments gained 2% on its bullish forecast.
Google fell 4% on pricing concerns.
Sonus climbed 5% after the SEC ended its prodube into the company’s accounting without recommending enforcement action.
Brocade lost 4% after delaying its quarterly SEC filing.
Comtech rose 5% on its results.
