Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq drop with Powell speech looming over Fed rate-cut hopes

US stocks slid on Thursday after disappointing Walmart (WMT) earnings and hotter-than-expected jobless claims data and focus tightened on the Federal Reserve’s closely watched gathering at Jackson Hole.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) fell more than 0.3%, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) moved down more than 0.4%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) also dropped over 0.3%. This marked the fifth straight day of losses for the S&P 500.

Bond yields rose as stocks fell ahead of Fed Chair Powell’s speech in Jackson Hole, Wyo., on Friday.

The 5-year Treasury yield (^FVX) rose 4 basis points to 3.85%, while the 10-year yield (^TNX) gained 3 basis points to 4.33%. The 30-year yield (^TYX) increased 2 basis points to 4.92%.

As my colleague Josh Schafer points out below, the odds of a rate cut remain elevated, though they have come down over the past week. Markets have also seen a steepening of the yield curve, with the spread between the 10-year yield and 30-year yield widening to 107 basis points.

“If Fed Chair Powell, in his Jackson Hole speech on Friday, is going to signal less commitment to the Fed’s 2% inflation target, the curve will steepen further,” Apollo chief economist Torsten Sløk wrote on Tuesday. (Disclosure: Yahoo Finance is owned by Apollo Global Management.)

Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell is set to speak at the Jackson Hole Symposium at 10 a.m. ET on Friday as investors will listen closely for any hints on when the central bank might lower interest rates again.

Entering the speech, markets are placing a 73.5% chance the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates by 25 basis points, per the CME FedWatch Tool. Some on Wall Street are fearful Powell may shake the market’s confidence in that September rate cut tomorrow morning.

“In our base case, Powell sticks to his reaction function laid out in July. We think this would surprise markets hawkishly,” Calvin Tse, head of Americas macro strategy and US economics at BNP Paribas wrote in a note to clients.

The theme of the market over the past week has been rotation.

The losers are becoming winners and vice versa. Bespoke Investment Group captured this in a post on X writing, “If you’re having a good week, you were likely having a terrible summer.”

Below is a list of the best-performing S&P 500 (^GSPC) stocks since Aug. 14, along with their returns prior to that date.

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — Cleveland Fed president Beth Hammack said Thursday that the case for cutting interest rates in September would be difficult to make given recent economic data, Yahoo Finance’s Jennifer Schonberger and David Hollerith report.

“There’s a lot of data we’re going to get between now and September and I walk into every meeting with an open mind about what the right thing to do is, but with the data I have right now and with the information I have, if the meeting was tomorrow, I would not see a case for reducing interest rates,” Hammack told Yahoo Finance at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium.

Read more here.

Yahoo Finance’s Jennifer Schonberger reports from the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium:

Read more here.

Apple TV+ (AAPL) is raising prices.

The monthly subscription cost will increase to $12.99 in the US, up from $9.99, effective today for new subscribers, the company confirmed to Yahoo Finance. Existing subscribers will see the change 30 days after their next renewal date. The annual plan ($99.99) and Apple One bundle pricing remain unchanged. The increase will also apply to “select international markets.”

Apple is framing the hike around its growing library of originals, with Emmy standouts “Severance” and “The Studio” anchoring the current slate as the company leans into its positioning as an ad-free, prestige TV destination.

But the move comes as Apple TV+ continues to struggle with retention.

New data from Antenna released Wednesday shows Apple TV+’s monthly churn has held between 6% and 7% for much of 2025, well above the industry average of 4% to 5% and nearly triple Netflix’s 2% churn rate. Even at its January peak of 2.9 million new sign-ups, cancellations spiked, underscoring how much of Apple’s growth is tied to free trials and short-term promotions rather than lasting subscribers.

The price hike also comes as Apple is rumored to lose its Friday Night Baseball package, with rights likely shifting to NBCUniversal’s Peacock (CMCSA).

To note, Disney’s ESPN just launched its sports streaming offering today. Read more here.

Yahoo Finance’s Claire Boston reports:

Read more here.

News that private equity firm Thoma Bravo plans to acquire Dayforce (DAY) and take it private has continued to lift the stock this week.

Shares rose 2% on Thursday afternoon, adding to their weekly gain since the deal was announced. Over the past five days, the HR software provider’s stock has climbed 28%.

Thoma Bravo’s $12.3 billion offer represents a 32.4% premium on the stock’s closing price on Aug. 15, Reuters reported. Under the terms of the deal, Dayforce shareholders will receive $70 per share in cash, representing an equity value of $11.18 billion.

Read more here.

Anjalee Khemlani reports:

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Cracker Barrel (CBRL) shares fell as much as 11% Thursday morning as news outlets reported on the company’s decision to drop the barrel from its logo, the first big brand makeover in nearly 50 years.

The move was part of a broader redesign under new CEO Julie Masino, who joined the company in 2023. The logo change drew the ire of conservatives, including President Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr.

That wasn’t the first time Cracker Barrel sparked conservative backlash: A legal group led by Trump aide Stephen Miller in July called for a federal investigation into the restaurant chain for its equity-related policies — part of the administration’s broader attack on corporate DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion).

Intel (INTC) shares fell nearly 2% Thursday morning after sinking 7% in Wednesday’s trading session.

The chipmaker’s declines reversed gains earlier in the week after the announcement of a $2 billion investment from SoftBank and news that the Trump administration was exploring taking a 10% stake in the company. The stock’s jump came even as Wall Street voiced concerns that those votes of confidence wouldn’t be enough to fix Intel’s problems.

Shares fell Wednesday as CNBC reported that Intel was in talks with other large investors to get an equity infusion at a discounted price.

Intel stock is down nearly 8% over the past six months but up 7% from a year ago.

US economic output hit an eight-month high in August while activity in the manufacturing sector reached its highest level in more than three years.

S&P Global’s flash US composite PMI survey, which captures activity in both the services and manufacturing sectors, came in at 55.4 in August, up from 55.1 in July.

Increased factory activity drove the gains: The preliminary manufacturing PMI reading rose to 53.3, its highest level in 39 months. Meanwhile, the service PMI reading declined to 55.4 in August, down slightly from 55.7 and marking a two-month low for the index.

“A strong flash PMI reading for August adds to signs that US businesses have enjoyed a strong third quarter so far,” S&P Global Market Intelligence chief business economist Chris Williamson said in the release. “The data are consistent with the economy expanding at a 2.5% annualized rate, up from the average 1.3% expansion seen over the first two quarters of the year.”

The gains didn’t come without hiccups, though. Both the services and manufacturing sectors saw their second-largest monthly input price increase since January 2023.

“The resulting rise in selling prices for goods and services suggests that consumer price inflation will rise further above the Fed’s 2% target in the coming months,” Williamson said.

US stocks fell on Thursday after Walmart (WMT) earnings came in below expectations and weekly jobless claims came in higher than expected to hit the highest level since June.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) dropped nearly 0.6%, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) moved down more than 0.4%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) also backed off about 0.4%.

Americans filing claims for jobless benefits rose to 235,000 for the week of Aug. 15, the largest increase since late May. Economists expected 225,000 jobless claims to be filed.

Meanwhile, continuing claims jumped to 1.97 million, greater than the 1.96 million anticipated, in a sign that Americans without jobs are finding it difficult to get a new one.

Read more here.

Boeing (BA) stock rose 1.5% in premarket trading after Bloomberg reported the company is in talks to sell up to 500 jets to China.

The potential sale would mark China’s largest purchase of Boeing aircraft since President Trump’s visit to the country in 2017. But it’s contingent on trade tensions between the US and China abating.

Earlier this year, Boeing was caught in the center of the trade war between the US and China. In April, China banned deliveries of the company’s planes during the height of tariff escalation but removed the ban in May.

Read more here.

Yahoo Finance’s Allie Canal reports:

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Tech stocks remain on shaky ground after concerns about the AI trade caused them to slip again on Wednesday. And while the tech pullback wasn’t anywhere close to a DeepSeek moment, Yahoo Finance’s Hamza Shaban writes, Wall Street did seem alarmed by a handful of pessimistic headlines.

Hamza explains the Street’s discontent with tech in today’s Morning Brief:

Read more here.

Walmart (WMT) stock slid after the big-box retailer’s Q2 earnings fell shy of Wall Street’s expectations, even after its US sales growth beat forecasts as shoppers embraced its low prices.

Yahoo Finance’s Brooke DiPalma reports:

Read more here.

Here’s a look at some of the top stocks trending in premarket trading:

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (HPE) stock rose 3% before the bell

Palantir (PLTR) stock edged higher on Thursday before the bell after closing in the red on Wednesday for the sixth consecutive trading session.

Nordson Corporation (NDSN) stock rose more than 5% premarket after Q2 results beat Wall Street estimates.

Coty Inc. (COTY) shares slumped 20% in premarket trading on Thursday after reporting results that exceeded market revenue expectations, but the beauty company reported a drop in sales by 8.1% year on year.

Short sellers betting against some of the market’s leading AI stocks potentially made billions as markets slid this week and investors moved away from some of the year’s hottest tech trades.

Yahoo Finance’s Jake Conley and Laura Bratton report:

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Bloomberg reports:

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