U.S. stock market averages were mixed Wednesday, with investors looking at reduced odds of a large interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve after the August core consumer price index came in above estimates.
Keeping up with the volatility that September trade traditionally delivers, the Nasdaq Composite (COMP:IND) swung out of the red, aided Nvidia (NVDA), Lam Research (LRCX), and other chip stocks.
Wall Street’s major averages had dropped sharply early Wednesday after the August CPI report showed core CPI, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.3% M/M, higher than the 0.2% expected rate. For the Fed’s meeting next week, odds of a large cut of 50 basis points fell to 15% while the chance of a 25 basis points reduction increased to 85%, according to the CME FedWatch tool.
“If it weren’t for sticky core services… this would be a very cold 50bps cut report,” Viraj Patel, senior strategist at Vanda Research,…
