U.S. Stocks Edge Lower, Dollar Gains With Metals: Markets Wrap

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks ended an up-and-down session mostly lower as Amazon.com’s wage increase pressured retailers and small caps slumped to a two-month low as trade tensions eased. The dollar, Treasuries and commodities advanced.

The S&P 500 Index edged lower. Retailers led declines after Amazon raised the minimum wage for all its employees. Small caps remained under pressure after the new Nafta deal, while Boeing Co. and Caterpillar Inc. led the Dow Jones Industrial Average to a fresh record. Comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell shrugging off inflation worries added to pressure on equities.

Amazon’s wage move raised the specter that competitors will have to make a similar move, threatening profit margins at a time when input costs have also been on the rise. Otherwise, trade largely set the tone, with multinationals continuing to benefit from a reduction in tension and domestically focused companies under pressure. Meanwhile, political drama in Washington still swirls around President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee.

European shares slid as concern mounted that Italy’s budget could lead to a debt crisis. The region’s common currency touched the lowest in six weeks. Emerging-market equities tumbled amid weak data and as Mohamed El-Erian warned against rushing into the group.

Elsewhere, the dollar climbed against almost all its major peers. Indonesia’s rupiah fell past 15,000 per dollar for the first time since 1998 a day after inflation came in slower than forecast. The pound slumped as Brexit and the annual conference of the governing Conservative Party continued to dominate headlines.

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Here are some key events coming up this week:

• U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May speaks Oct. 3. in Birmingham.
• A central bank policy decision from the Reserve Bank of India is due Friday.
• U.S. employment reports for September also due Friday.

These are the main moves in markets:

Stocks

• The S&P 500 fell less than 0.1 percent at 4 p.m. in New York.
• The Dow added 0.5 percent and the Nasdaq 100 Index fell 0.2 percent. The Russell 2000 Index fell 1 percent.
• The Stoxx Europe 600 Index dipped 0.5 percent to the lowest in almost two weeks.
• The MSCI Emerging Market Index declined 1.2 percent to the lowest in almost two weeks.
• The MSCI Asia Pacific Index declined 0.8 percent to the lowest in two weeks on the biggest drop in almost four weeks.

Currencies

• The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index climbed 0.2 percent to the highest in three weeks.
• The euro dipped 0.4 percent to $1.1554, reaching the weakest in almost six weeks on its fifth straight decline.
• The British pound declined 0.5 percent to $1.298.
• The Japanese yen rose 0.3 percent to 113.611 per dollar.

Bonds

• The yield on 10-year Treasuries decreased four basis points to 3.05 percent.
• Germany’s 10-year yield fell five basis points to 0.42 percent, the lowest in almost three weeks.
• Italy’s 10-year yield gained 15 basis points to 3.448 percent, the highest in more than four years.

Commodities

• West Texas Intermediate fell 0.2 percent to $75.14 a barrel after hitting the highest in almost four years.
• Gold futures climbed 1.3 percent to $1,207.70 an ounce.

--With assistance from Mark Cranfield, Andreea Papuc and Samuel Potter.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jeremy Herron in New York at jherron8@bloomberg.net;Vildana Hajric in New York at vhajric1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeremy Herron at jherron8@bloomberg.net, Yakob Peterseil

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