Trump Rally Fades As Investors Await Powell's Remarks, Bitcoin Drops Below $90,000: What's Driving Markets Thursday?

Signs of a waning Trump-led rally emerged Thursday as investors assessed the economic outlook and awaited potential signals on the interest-rate path from the upcoming Fed Chair Jerome Powell‘s speech in Dallas at 3 p.m. ET.

Inflation data from the past two days provided mixed signals: consumer prices met expectations, while producer prices slightly exceeded forecasts, with both indicators showing a year-over-year uptick in October.

Despite this inflation data, markets remain confident the Fed will continue easing, pricing in an 80% likelihood of a December rate cut.

Wall Street’s major indices were in the red by midday, with the S&P 500 down 0.3% and small-cap stocks lagging behind large-caps.

The U.S. dollar index ticked up 0.1%, even as Treasury yields declined. Bonds outperformed equities, with the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF TLT climbing 1.2%.

Gold edged 0.2% lower, while oil rose 0.2%. Meanwhile, Bitcoin BTC/USD saw its rally stall, dropping 1.8%.

Thursday’s Performance In Major US Indices, ETFs

Major Indices	Price	Chg % (1 day)
Dow Jones	43,884.60	-0.2%
Nasdaq 100	20,986.66	-0.2%
S&P 500	5,969.78	-0.3%
Russell 2000	2,345.60	-1.0%

According to Benzinga Pro data:

• The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY fell 0.3% to $595.18.
• The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average DIA eased 0.2% to $438.76.
• The tech-heavy Invesco QQQ Trust Series QQQ slipped 0.4% to $510.28.
• The iShares Russell 2000 ETF IWM tumbled 1% to $232.71.
• The Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund XLP outperformed, rising 0.2%. The Industrials Select Sector SPDR Fund XLI lagged, down 1.5%.

Thursday’s Stock Movers

• Walt Disney Co. DIS rose 7% after reporting better-than-expected quarterly results.

Other stocks reacting to earnings reports included:

• Cisco Systems Inc. CSCO, down over 2%,
• Brookfield Corp. BN, up 0.9%,
• Talen Energy Corp. TLN, up 0.9%,
• Nu Holdings Ltd. NU, down 7.5%,
• Tetra Tech Inc. TTEK, down over 10%,
• StandardAero Inc. SARO, down 5.5%.

Companies slated to report their earnings after Thursday’s close include Applied Materials Inc. AMAT, Globant S.A. GLOB, AST SpaceMobile Inc. ASTS, Post Holdings Inc. POST.

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