PARIS, Sept 1 (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange opened lower on Thursday, heading for a fifth straight session in the red on continued interest rate fears as manufacturing activity slowed. Both Europe and Asia contracted last month, reinforcing signs of an economic slowdown.
In early trading, the Dow Jones index lost 160.53 points, or 0.51%, to 31,349.9 points and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 0.70% to 3,927.12 points.
The Nasdaq Composite lost 1.11%, or 131.39 points, to 11,684.80.
Manufacturing activity in the eurozone contracted further in August to 49.6 and in the UK it fell to 47.3, according to final results from S&P Global’s purchasing manager surveys.
In China, manufacturing activity fell for the first time in three months, to 49.5, on weaker demand as the country persists with its “zero COVID” policy so that the city of Chengdu will confine 21.2 million inhabitants.
These economic indicators come as the shock of last Friday’s remarks by Jerome Powell, the chairman of the US Federal Reserve (Fed), on raising interest rates for “a while”, is far from over. falls.
Markets are still pricing in a 73.1% chance of a 75 basis point hike in Fed rates this month after the cost of credit has risen a total of 225 points since March.
The US ISM manufacturing index for August will be released at 14:00 GMT and the Labor Department’s jobs report is due on Friday, both elements watched by investors in hopes of a possible change of the Fed’s strategy.
Meanwhile, jobless claims fell unexpectedly in the United States last week, to 232,000 against 237,000 (revised) the previous week.
In values, Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) fell by 5.54% and 3.35% respectively, Washington having asked the two groups to suspend the sale of some of their chips dedicated to artificial intelligence to China. In their wake, Seagate Technology, Micron, Applied Materials and Intel lost 1.1% to 3.7%, while Qualcomm fell 2.83%.
Ford drops 1.93% after announcing the recall of 198,000 Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator vehicles in the United States.
Campbell Soup fell 3.17%, penalized by its adjusted earnings forecast for 2023 below analysts’ expectations.