NEW YORK – US stocks finished mixed on Sept 20, with the Dow closing at a fresh record as Fed officials spoke out about their recent vote to cut interest rates by half a percentage-point.
Traders also responded to a report in the Wall Street Journal that semiconductor software maker Qualcomm had approached Intel about a takeover.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day up 0.1 per cent at 42,063.36 – a new record.
The broad-based S&P 500 fell 0.2 per cent to 5,702.55, and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 0.4 per cent to 17,948.32.
“There’s a bit of just settling and profit-taking a little bit, after the big gains yesterday and a lot of the volatility we’ve seen the last few weeks,” Mill Street Research chief strategist Sam Burns told AFP.
“But I think this is all pretty consistent with consolidation of gains when we’re at all time highs with a lot of the indices,” he added.
Among the Fed officials to speak on Sept 20 was governor Michelle Bowman, the sole holdout in the 11-to-1 vote for a half-point rate cut on Sept 18, over the quarter-point cut that had been considered.
“I see the risk that the Committee’s larger policy action could be interpreted as a premature declaration of victory on our price stability mandate,” Ms Bowman said in a statement, adding that she favoured a “measured pace” of cuts going forward.
Mr Christopher Waller, another Fed governor, told CNBC that the US central bank’s big rate cut was not a sign that the economy is “falling behind.”
“It’s not about reacting to, or falling behind or anything like that,” he said. “I do not believe we’re behind.”
Among individual stocks, Qualcomm’s share price fell 2.9 per cent following a
