U.S. stocks were mixed on Wednesday, as investors and experts looked towards data points for an indication of when to expect an interest rate hike.
For weeks, Wall Street’s conventional wisdom has held that the first interest rate hike in nearly a decade will occur in 2015—but not likely before September. Today, the hope was that major information from the retail sector may bring added clarity to that picture.
But retail sales figures for April were unchanged, a mild disappointment as a 0.3% increase was predicted. Macy’s, Ralph Lauren and JC Penney were all due to report earnings today. Macy’s reported first, slightly missing expectations.
Treasury yields moved up on the heels of the disappointing data, reaching 2.28% on the 10-year notes.
Here are the final numbers from Wall Street on Wednesday:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 18,060.49 (-7.74)
NASDAQ: 4,981.69 (+5.50)
S&P 500: 2,098.48 (-0.64)
