Wall Street points to losses as markets digest gains and make trades

Global pharmaceutical giant Merck is buying privately held ophthalmic biotechnology EyeBio in a deal worth up to $3 billion, according to EyeBio’s lead investor Jeito Capital. Merck shares were flat in pre-market trading.

American Airlines fell 8.6% before the bell after lowering earnings forecasts and announcing that Chief Commercial Officer Vasu Raja was leaving the company in June.

Dick’s Sporting Goods rose 7.2% after reporting better-than-analyst-expected earnings and raising full-year earnings forecasts. Pet food and supplies company Chewy also easily topped Wall Street earnings targets in the first quarter, with its shares rising nearly 6%.

There is little economic news to move markets until Friday, when the government releases its latest monthly report on household spending and income. The consumer spending report also includes an inflation calculation for April, which the Federal Reserve favors.

The Fed is keeping the federal funds rate at its highest level in more than two decades in hopes of lowering the economy and investment prices enough to bring the annual inflation rate down to its 2% target. If rates are left too high for too long, it could devastate the labor market and the entire economy. However, cutting interest rates prematurely could cause inflation to accelerate again and inflict even more pain on American households.

Elsewhere in Europe, at midday the French CAC 40 fell 1.1%, the British FTSE fell 0.4% and the German DAX fell 0.8%.

In Asian trading, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 fell 0.8% to 38,556.87. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index fell 1.3% to 7,665.60. South Korea’s Kospi lost 1.7% to 2,677.30. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.8% to 18,477.01, while the Shanghai Composite was little changed and rose less than 0.1% to 3,111.02.

The International Monetary Fund raised its forecast for China’s economic prospects, saying the No. 2 economy will grow at an annual rate of 5% this year. However, she also cautioned that consumer-friendly reforms were needed to maintain strong, high-quality growth.

In other trading, benchmark U.S. crude rose 61 cents to $80.44 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 57 cents to $84.51 a barrel.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 157.28 from 157.12 Japanese yen. The euro was at $1.0848, down from $1.0857.

Tuesday’s close of the S&P 500 index was little changed, just below the record set a week ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.6%, while gains in technology stocks pushed the Nasdaq up 0.6% to another all-time high.

Source: AP