Investing.com – Wall Street traded lower near midday on Thursday as investors opted to take profits gained on the previous session despite a slew of mostly positive economic data.
At 11:59AM ET (15:59GMT), the Dow Jones fell 39 points, or 0.19%, the S&P 500 lost 5 points, or 0.20%, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped 4 points, or 0.07%.
Thursday’s slight pullback came after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 25 basis points to a range between 0.75% and 1.00% a day earlier, the second hike in three months, but stuck to its outlook for only two more rate hikes this year and three in 2018.
Equity markets were boosted Wednesday after the Fed did not flag any plan to speed up the pace of monetary tightening, with Fed chair Janet Yellen reiterating that the pace of rate hikes would be gradual.
While some experts pointed to Thursday’s losses as profit taking, others attributed the pullback to disappointment over U.S. President Donald Trump’s “skinny” budget that only focused on plans for discretionary spending instead of providing further details on his promised tax cuts.
Economic data out Thursday, while largely better than expected, was unable to lift investors’ spirits.
Housing starts jumped 3.0% in February, more than double expectations, although building permits did put a damper on the news with a 6.2% drop.
The Philadephia Fed manufacturing index showed that activity in the sector declined less than expected in March while new orders hit their highest level in nearly 30 years.
In labor market data, even though the number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week fell less than expected, initial jobless claims held near the lowest level since March 1973, underlining optimism over the health of the labor market.
Additionally, the Job Opening and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) showed job openings unexpectedly jump to over 5.6 million as employers continued to search for workers.
On the company front, Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) led the S&P 500 higher with gains of more than 7% after the business software maker produced better-than-expected quarterly profit.
Dollar General (NYSE:DG) also rose 2% after its own earnings report impressed traders.
Outside of earnings, shares in Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) jumped nearly 4% after the electric carmaker said it would raise about $1.15 billion as the company speeds up the launch of its Model 3 sedan.
On the downside, Biogen (NASDAQ:BIIB) was the biggest decliner on the S&P 500 with losses of more than 5% after Morgan Stanley downgraded the pharmaceutical firm and cut its price target as the broker believed there was limited upside to the shares.
Among blue-chips, 3M (NYSE:MMM) said on Thursday it would buy Johnson Controls ' (NYSE:JCI) safety gear business, Scott Safety, in deal with an enterprise value of $2 billion.
Market players looked past McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) public relations fiasco as the fast food chain said Thursday that its official Twitter account had been compromised after it quickly deleted a tweet sent from the company's handle slamming U.S. President Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, oil prices turned lower during North American morning hours on Thursday, as an overnight bounce lost steam amid ongoing concerns over a global supply glut.
U.S. crude futures lost 0.35% to $48.69 by 12:02PM ET (16:02GMT), while Brent oil traded down 0.14% to $51.74.