U.S. stock futures fall slightly after hawkish Fed rattles Wall Street By Investing.com

Investing.com – U.S. stock index futures fell slightly on Thursday evening as Wall Street recovered from a slump the previous session as the Federal Reserve announced a slower pace of easing next year.

The Fed cut interest rates by 25 basis points on Wednesday, but its forecast that rate cuts in 2025 would be smaller than expected led to sharp declines in all three major indexes.

fell 0.2% to 5,922.0 points, while it fell 0.3% to 21,312.55 points by 7:39 p.m. ET (00:39 GMT). The index fell 0.2% to 42,709.0 points.

The Fed’s hawkish stance weighs, investors assess weekly jobs and revised GDP

The Fed’s rate cut on Wednesday brought the federal funds rate down to a range of 4.25% to 4.50%, although policymakers forecast only two rate cuts in 2025, compared to four cuts previously forecast.

Chairman Jerome Powell said further reductions depend on progress in containing persistent inflation, reflecting policymakers’ adjustments to possible economic changes under the new administration of Donald Trump.

Given continued economic resilience and still-high inflation, traders now expect only a quarter-point decline in 2025.

Data on Thursday showed last week’s decline was deeper than expected, suggesting a gradual slowdown in the labor market has taken place.

Other data showed that the U.S. economy in the third quarter supported the Fed’s view of robust economic growth.

Wall Street is stabilizing after the collapse, the government shutdown is getting closer

Wall Street indexes rebounded on Thursday after a slump on Wednesday, but closed largely unchanged as investors still assessed the impact of the Fed’s hawkish tone.

The prospect that interest rates would remain higher for longer than expected pushed Wall Street indexes sharply lower on Wednesday, leading to sharp losses in the technology sector.

Technology stocks regained some of the ground lost in the previous session, but were still trading lower.

Bucking the trend, shares of NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:) rose 1.3%, while shares of Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:) fell almost 1% and shares of Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:) lost almost 1.2% . Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ:) shares fell 2.3% on Thursday.

Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:) shares plunged nearly 17% a day after it issued weaker-than-expected earnings guidance.

The index fell 0.1% to 5,867.08 points, while the index fell slightly to 19,369.58 points.

The value was slightly higher at 42,342.24 points, narrowly missing the eleventh decline in a row.

On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted decisively against a Republican-backed funding proposal that would prevent a government shutdown. The state funding expires on Friday at midnight.

If lawmakers fail to meet the deadline, the government will begin a partial shutdown, cutting off funding for activities from border security to national parks and halting pay for more than 2 million federal workers.

A possible closure could also have an impact on Christmas traffic, among other public services.