Stocks reversed lower on Thursday as another blowout quarterly earnings report from Nvidia (NVDA) couldn’t overcome new comments from the Federal Reserve suggesting interest rates will need to remain elevated for a long period of time to bring inflation down.
Near noon ET on Thursday the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) was down 1.2% and the S&P 500 (^GSPC) fell 0.7%, while the Dow Jones Industrial (DJI) slipped about 0.5%, or 166 points.
In an interview with Yahoo Finance’s Jennifer Schonberger on Thursday, Boston Fed President Susan Collins said it is “extremely likely” the central bank will need to hold interest rates high to bring down inflation.
“I think that it’s going to take some time to really be sure that we are seeing the sustained realignment of demand and supply that is needed in order to bring inflation back on a path that will get back to 2% [in] a reasonable amount of time,” Collins said in an interview from the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium in Wyoming.
“I think it’s extremely likely that we will need to hold [interest rates at current levels] for a substantial amount of time,” Collins added, “but exactly where the peak is I would not signal right at this point. We may be near [a peak], but we may need to increase a little bit further.
Investors will be closely watching a speech from Fed Chair Jay Powell on Friday morning for additional signals on the future path of policy.
On Wednesday, stocks finished in the green across the board ahead of Nvidia’s earnings and the tech giant did not disappoint.
The company reported revenue of $13.51 billion, a 101% jump from last year, while adjusted earnings came in at $2.70 per share, up 429% from last year. Shares rose as much as 8% in pre-market trade on the news.
Those gains had been pared to around 2.7% by midday.
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