The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 ended lower Friday as Netflix shares weighed, but American Express kept the Dow afloat after quarterly earnings from both companies, while growing pessimism that the Federal Reserve would cut interest rates soon also dented sentiment.
Equities have struggled recently following a five-month rally that started in November, in part due to expectations the Fed was likely to cut interest rates in the first half of the year. "So in that environment when you're sitting here near highs, that means it's not going to be rates going down and multiples expanding because of that, that has to be driven by earnings growth. And so just the more the rate picture doesn't look super-favorable for lower rates, even more important is the earnings growth picture."
Progress on bringing down inflation has "stalled" this year, said Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee, the latest U.S. central banker to drop an earlier focus on the coming need for interest rate cuts.