By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com -- The S&P 500 is set to snap a four-week win streak Friday, as investors paused their bullish bets on stocks amid fears that Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell could push back against the idea of a dovish pivot at his Jackson Hole speech next week.
The S&P 500 fell 1.4%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.8%, or 278 points, the Nasdaq was down 2%.
Consumer stocks led the move lower, pressured by a weakness in travel and leisure related stocks.
Carnival Corporation (NYSE:CCL), Royal Caribbean Cruises (NYSE:RCL), Caesars Entertainment (NASDAQ:CZR) and Expedia Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE) were the biggest laggards in the sector.
Other growth sectors of the market such as tech were hurt by a fresh climb in Treasury yields as investors mulled the latest comments from Fed members that signal the prospect of Powell striking a hawkish tone at the Jackson Hole symposium next week.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) fell more than 3%, followed by Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN).
Chip stocks fell nearly 3% to give up the bulk of their gains from a day earlier as Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) fell despite reporting better-than-expected quarterly results.
St. Louis’s James Bullard on Thursday backed the idea of another 75 basis-point rate hike that would take the Fed funds rates to a level that will put significant downward pressure on inflation.
Kansas City Fed President Esther George, however, appeared cautious on larger hikes, saying the central bank has to be“very mindful” of the lagged impact of its policy decision on the economy.
The Fed speak came just days after the release of the Fed's July meeting minutes “revealed a firm commitment [from the Fed] to remain on an aggressive path of policy tightening,” Morgan Stanley said.
On the earnings front, Foot Locker (NYSE:FL) rallied 20% after the sportswear retailer reported quarterly results that topped analysts' expectations and announced that former Ulta Beauty CEO Mary Dillon will replace Richard Johnson as chief executive on Sept. 1.
Crypto-related stocks, meanwhile, were dragged lower by a slip in bitcoin. Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN),Riot Blockchain (NASDAQ:RIOT), and MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) were down heavily.
In other news, Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ:BBBY) fell 41% after a corporate filing showed that activist investor Ryan Cohen had sold his entire position in the company.
Sentiment on the stock was soured further on worries about the company’s balance sheet after the housewares retailer reportedly tapped a law firm to explore options to address its debt load.