US open: Stocks mixed as traders digest Warsh remarks

(Sharecast News) - Major indices were mixed at the open on Wednesday after wrapping up a strong firsthalf performance a day earlier.

As of 1515 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.13% at 52,389.32, while the S&P 500 lost 0.14% to 7,489.22 and the Nasdaq Composite came out of the gate 0.39% lower at 26,112.65.

The Dow opened 70.12 points higher on Wednesday, extending gains recorded in the previous session.

Wednesday's primary focus will likely be comments from Federal Reserve chairman Kevin Warsh, who said that inflation remained too high, but offered no signal on what policymakers may do at their meeting later this month. Speaking at the European Central Bank's Forum on Central Banking in Sintra, he stressed that price stability remained central to the Fed's mandate.

"We're all in the price stability business, that might not be our only business, but if there was a common thing I heard over the last couple of days, it was openmindedness on these questions of AI, openmindedness on productivity, but we've all looked around, and we've seen that prices are too high," Warsh said. Aside from his postmeeting press conference two weeks ago, the remarks were Warsh's first public comments since being confirmed in May.

On the macro front, US employers announced 45,849 job cuts in June, the lowest monthly total since December 2025 and down 53% from May, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Cuts were also 4% lower than a year earlier. The tech sector led reductions with 15,503 planned layoffs, Yeartodate, US employers have announced 443,604 job cuts, down 40% from the 744,308 recorded in the first half of 2025, with tech accounting for 139,156 of this year's total. Hiring plans also. Conversely, employers announced 10,933 new roles in June, taking the yeartodate total to 914,405, roughly 10% higher than in the same period in 2025.

On another note, US mortgage applications were unchanged in the week ended 26 June, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association of America. Last week's flat reading comes as mortgage applications were also little changed during the period, with the benchmark fixed 30-year contract easing two basis points to 6.57%. Applications to refinance a mortgage, which are more sensitive to short-term changes in interest rates, eased by 0.6% week-on-week, while applications to purchase a home were up 0.5%.

Elsewhere, US private sector employment grew less than expected in June, according to figures released on Wednesday by ADP. Employment rose by 98,000 following an unrevised 122,000 jump in May, coming in below economists' expectations for a 120,000 increase. Small businesses with fewer than 50 employees added 53,000 jobs, while medium businesses with between 50 and 499 employees added 29,000. Large business with more than 500 employees created an additional 25,000 jobs. The service sector added 96,000 jobs, while the goods production sector saw a 2,000 increase. The median pay gain for job-stayers was little changed at 4.4% in June, while year-on-year pay growth for job-changers accelerated to 6.6%.

Moving on, US manufacturing growth eased in June, with the S&P Global purchasing managers index slipping to a three-month low of 53.9 in May, down from 55.1 in April. Output and new orders continued to rise at historically strong rates, though both expanded more slowly than in May, while input costs rose sharply again, driven by higher rawmaterial prices, but the pace of inflation softened from May's recent high. Sellingprice inflation also eased to a threemonth low. Employment remained a weak spot, with job shedding accelerating to its fastest rate since May 2020 and, excluding the pandemic period, the quickest since October 2009. Business confidence weakened for a second month, falling to its lowest level since October 2025. Demand continued to rely heavily on the domestic market, with new export orders falling for a twelfth consecutive month as firms pointed to tariffs and subdued international demand, partly linked to the war in the Middle East.

Still on data, US construction spending edged higher in May, rising 0.1% to an annualised $2.21trn, according to Census Bureau data published on Wednesday. The total remained 1.5% below the level seen a year earlier, with spending over the first five months of 2026 down 2.7% on the same period in 2025. Privatesector construction was broadly unchanged at $1.67trn, with residential spending ticking up 0.3% to $930.2bn and nonresidential activity slipping 0.3% to $738.7bn. Public construction rose 0.5% to $541.2bn, with educational projects increasing 0.6% to $113.4bn, and highway spending also climbing 0.6% to $150.6bn.

Finally, US manufacturing growth eased in June, with the Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing PMI slipping to 53.3 from 54.0 in May, marking a sixth straight month of expansion but the slowest pace since March. Susan Spence, chair of the ISM's manufacturing survey committee, said the new orders Index rose for a sixth month in a row, though it softened to 56.0 from 56.8, while the production index also moderated, falling to 52.2 from 54.3. Price pressures remained elevated, with the prices index at 73.0, though that was sharply lower than May's 82.1 reading. Spence also said firms continued to report solid demand, though growth was slower across several key components.

In the corporate space, General Mills posted 1% growth in fourthquarter sales to $4.6bn and said its fiscal 2027 outlook includes improved organic growth and greater efficiency as it targets $3bn in cost savings by fiscal 2030. The board also declared its quarterly dividend at the prevailing rate.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

Dow Jones - Risers

Salesforce.Com Inc. (CRM) $162.91 3.96%

Apple Inc. (AAPL) $291.53 2.56%

International Business Machines Corporation (CDI) (IBM) $286.35 2.01%

Nike Inc. (NKE) $42.17 1.97%

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $377.11 1.44%

Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $334.36 1.14%

Intel Corp. (INTC) $134.11 0.97%

Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $97.18 0.76%

Boeing Co. (BA) $218.49 0.75%

Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $419.04 0.61%

Dow Jones - Fallers

Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $1,035.05 -2.29%

Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $126.57 -1.28%

Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) $27.06 -0.99%

Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $116.85 -0.62%

3M Co. (MMM) $159.93 -0.59%

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $253.18 -0.38%

McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $269.94 -0.33%

Visa Inc. (V) $341.75 -0.29%

Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $146.69 -0.05%

S&P 500 - Risers

Meta Platforms Inc. (META) $604.80 8.35%

General Mills Inc. (GIS) $37.47 7.90%

ConAgra Brands Inc (CAG) $14.30 6.43%

Robert Half Inc. (RHI) $32.57 5.59%

Centene Corp. (CNC) $66.67 4.05%

Jack Henry & Associates Inc. (JKHY) $141.83 4.04%

IQVIA Holdings Inc. (IQV) $201.54 4.01%

Salesforce.Com Inc. (CRM) $163.01 3.96%

Nasdaq Inc (NDAQ) $80.16 3.91%

Gartner Inc. (IT) $134.19 3.80%

S&P 500 - Fallers

Corning Inc. (GLW) $225.70 -11.13%

Coterra Energy Inc. (CTRA) $32.56 -8.62%

Western Digital Corp. (WDC) $611.01 -6.14%

Lam Research Corp. (LRCX) $404.24 -4.83%

Micron Technology Inc. (MU) $1,078.51 -4.30%

Seagate Technology Plc (STX) $929.62 -3.98%

Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT) $683.47 -3.85%

Quanta Services Inc. (PWR) $692.44 -3.83%

Amphenol Corp. (APH) $170.03 -3.33%

QUALCOMM Inc. (QCOM) $184.62 -3.24%

Nasdaq 100 - Risers

Meta Platforms Inc. (META) $604.80 8.35%

Mercadolibre Inc. (MELI) $1,726.09 4.11%

Baidu Inc. (BIDU) $117.66 3.91%

Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. (CTSH) $39.77 3.79%

Synopsys Inc. (SNPS) $461.99 3.75%

Workday, Inc. (WDAY) $126.81 3.75%

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (CHKP) $133.70 3.70%

Tesla Inc (TSLA) $423.06 3.61%

Autodesk Inc. (ADSK) $200.88 3.55%

Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP) $231.87 3.41%

Nasdaq 100 - Fallers

Qvc Group Inc Series A (QVCGA) $0.34 -13.49%

Western Digital Corp. (WDC) $611.01 -5.63%

Lam Research Corp. (LRCX) $404.24 -4.83%

Micron Technology Inc. (MU) $1,078.51 -4.30%

Seagate Technology Plc (STX) $929.62 -3.98%

Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT) $683.47 -3.85%

QUALCOMM Inc. (QCOM) $184.62 -2.85%

Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) $24.06 -2.73%

Wynn Resorts Ltd. (WYNN) $96.68 -2.37%

Vodafone Group Plc ADS (VOD) $12.94 -2.26%