US Stock Market Shows Mixed Results, GDP Growth Exceeds Expectations

On July 25th, the US stock market showed mixed results as the three major indices closed with varying performances. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 0.2%, while the S&P 500 fell by 0.51%, and the Nasdaq Composite declined by 0.93%. Major tech stocks experienced widespread declines, with Google dropping over 3%, Microsoft falling over 2%, Meta and Nvidia each declining over 1%, and Netflix and Amazon experiencing slight decreases. Tesla, however, bucked the trend with a rise of about 2%. Ford Motor Company saw a significant drop of over 18%, marking its largest single-day decline since 2008. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis also released data on the same day, showing the annualized growth rates for the second quarter's GDP and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) inflation. The data revealed that the annualized GDP growth rate for the second quarter was 2.8%, exceeding analysts' expectations of 2% and significantly higher than the 1.4% growth rate in the first quarter. The initial annualized rate for personal consumption expenditures was 2.3%, surpassing the expected 2.0%. The initial PCE price index annualized rate was 2.9%, slightly above the expected 2.7%, but down from 3.7% in the same period last year. Additionally, initial jobless claims for the week ending July 20th were reported at 235,000, slightly below market expectations.