US stocks closed lower after Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank needs to balance concerns about inflation and labor market weakness in its future interest rate decisions.
In his statement this morning, Powell signaled that the Fed may cut interest rates again after implementing its first cut this year last week, paving the way for further reductions.
He also stressed that further rate cuts should be done slowly and carefully.
Powell warned that overly aggressive cuts could increase the risk of inflation, while keeping rates high for too long could hurt the labor market.
Fed Vice Chair Michelle Bowman said the central bank can ease concerns about continued inflation and should be committed to cutting rates to support the labor market.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.19% to 46,292.78, the S&P 500 fell 0.55% to 6,656.92, and the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.95% to 22,573.47.
Meanwhile, Nvidia shares fell 2.8% after surging in the previous session following the announcement of a $100 billion investment plan in OpenAI. Amazon fell 3.04%, Microsoft fell 0.94% and Apple fell 0.61%.
Boeing shares, on the other hand, rose 2% after the company received an order worth more than $8 billion from Uzbekistan Airways.
Trading volume on the US exchange was $18.89 billion, compared with an average of $17.66 billion over the past 20 trading days.
