By Johann M Cherian, Purvi Agarwal and Saeed Azhar
(Reuters) -Wall Street's main indexes fell on Wednesday, with the Nasdaq leading declines as technology stocks slumped on Thanksgiving eve on worries the Federal Reserve may be cautious about rate cuts after stubbornly strong U.S. inflation data.
Data showed consumer spending increased solidly in October, suggesting the U.S. economy maintained its strong pace of growth early in the fourth quarter, but progress on lowering inflation appeared to have stalled.
Traders added to bets the Fed will lower borrowing costs by 25 basis points at its December meeting, according to CME's FedWatch. However, they anticipate the central bank leaving rates unchanged at its January and March meetings.
Investors were still gauging the impact of President-elect Donald Trump's pledge on Monday to impose duties of 25% on imports from Mexico and Canada and 10% on Chinese goods unless they halt flows of the deadly opioid fentanyl and illegal migrants into the U.S.
Goldman Sachs said in a note this week an escalation in tariff policy risks delaying the return to 2.0% inflation target.
At 01:56 p.m. the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 107.54 points, or 0.24%, to 44,752.77, the S&P 500 lost 20.04 points, or 0.33%, to 6,001.59 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 116.33 points, or 0.61%, to 19,059.24.
Dell (NYSE:DELL) fell 11.8% with HP (NYSE:HPQ) down 6.2% after downbeat quarterly forecasts, weighing on the Information Technology sector, which led sectoral declines and lost 1.3%.
The sentiment spread to megacaps such as Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), which dropped 1.9% and 0.8% respectively, while the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index slid 2% to hit its lowest in more than two months.
The Russell 2000 index, which hit a record high earlier in the week, eked out a 0.14% gain.
Investors also assessed data earlier in the day which showed the economy grew at a solid clip in the third quarter, while weekly jobless claims fell again last week, leaving the door open for another interest-rate cut from the Federal Reserve in December.
"Inflation has proven to be a little stickier than the Fed would have liked, which may give them pause with respect to cutting rates," said Scott Welch, chief investment officer at Certuity.
"There are questions around the effects of Trump's stated tariff policy, which, if implemented could be pretty inflationary and so the Fed is going to have to balance itself between the economic data and the incoming administration's policy agenda."
Minutes from the Fed's November meeting, released on Tuesday, showed policymakers were uncertain about the outlook for interest-rate cuts and how much the current rates were restricting the economy.
The benchmark S&P 500 is on track for its biggest one-month rise in a year and its sixth month of gains out of seven, as markets price in the probability of Trump's policies benefiting local businesses and the overall economy.
Among others, Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) lost 4.7% after forecasting fourth-quarter subscription revenue below expectations, hit by weaker client spending on its human capital management software.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.78-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 350 new highs and 45 new lows on the NYSE.
The S&P 500 posted 78 new 52-week highs and no new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 122 new highs and 61 new lows.
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