In early trading, the New York stock market was mixed as the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite moved in opposite directions. Expectations for a benchmark rate cut have grown after last month's U.S. producer price index (PPI) fell from the prior month, but selling to take profits also increased on the view that the stock market has reached a peak.

Jerome Powell, chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed), is speaking at a press conference held in Washington, D.C., on the 7th. /Courtesy of the Federal Reserve

As of 10:37 a.m. on the 10th (local time), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.4% from the previous day at 45,534.20 on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The large-cap-focused Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 index was up 0.5% at 6,545.24, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was up 0.4% at 21,972.29, respectively.

The U.S. Department of Labor said that the August PPI fell 0.1% from the prior month. That was well below the Dow Jones consensus forecast for a 0.3% month-over-month increase. It was the first month-over-month decline in PPI since April. The year-over-year increase was also 2.6%, lower than the 3.3% expected by analysts.

With PPI defying analysts' expectations by declining, projections have strengthened that the U.S. Central Bank, the Federal Reserve (Fed), will move to cut the benchmark rate at the regular Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting to be held for two days starting on the 16th.

U.S. jobs data have also shown weakness recently, and calls are growing for the Fed to cut rates. President Donald Trump said in a post on his social media (SNS) platform Truth Social that "there is no inflation in the United States," arguing that "the Fed should immediately cut rates sharply."

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