Investing.com – Stocks were down on Thursday as investors wait for President Donald Trump to pick the next Federal Reserve chair.
The S&P 500 lost ten points or 0.41% as of 10:15 AM ET (2:15 PM GMT) while the Dow composite slipped 21 points or 0.27% . Tech heavy NASDAQ Composite fell 25 points or 0.40%.
United States President Donald Trump is widely expected to nominate current Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell as the chair of the U.S. central bank, at 3:00PM ET (7:00 PM GMT). Investors are also digesting the highly anticipated tax-reform bill, which would cut the corporate tax rate to 20% from 35%.
Among the biggest winners after the morning bell were Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE:BABA), which rose 1.75% after its revenue in the third quarter grew by 61%. Telecommunications chip maker Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) increased 3.25% after its earnings results beat forecasts, while Bitcoin Investment Trust surged 11.00%
Meanwhile luxury car maker Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) slipped by 5.32% after a disappointing third quarter. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) was down 0.94% ahead of its earnings release, expected after the markets close. Technology firmGoPro Inc (NASDAQ:GPRO) was down 13.82% after its holiday-outlook missed estimates, while pharmaceutical company Teva Pharma Industries Ltd ADR (NYSE:TEVA)was down to an all time low of 21.04%.
In economic news, the number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week fell unexpectedly, to 229,000 from the previous week’s total of 234,000, while nonfarm productivity rose by 3.0% in the third quarter.
Stocks were down in Europe. In Germany the DAX slumped 26 points or 0.19% while France’s CAC 40 fell 15 points or 0.27% and in London the FTSE 100 increased 33 points or 0.45%. Spain’s IBEX 35 lost 77 points or 0.74%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 slipped down 17 points or 0.48%.
In commodities, gold futures rose 0.07% to $1,278.08 a troy ounce while crude oil futures was down 0.06% to $54.27 a barrel. The U.S dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, slipped 0.10% to 94.61.