Equity Markets Fall as Investors Evaluate Fed Official's Comments

03:54 PM EDT, 03/21/2025 (MT Newswires) -- US benchmark equity indexes were on track to close lower on Friday after the latest remarks by a Federal Reserve official calling a high level of uncertain in the economic environment.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2% to 41,874.6, while the Nasdaq Composite decreased 0.1% to 17,676.1. The S&P 500 was down 0.3% to 5,644.6. All sectors except consumer discretionary and communication systems were down.

Micron Technology ( MU ) was the worst performer on the S&P 500 with shares down 8.2%. The company is facing margin pressures as it transitions from the NAND business to the high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, segment to serve the growing AI industry, UBS analysts said in a Friday note.

Super Micro Computer ( SMCI ) was among the top performers in the S&P 500, shares jumped by 7%. J.P. Morgan upgraded the stock to neutral from underweight and raised its price target to $45 from $35.

Boeing ( BA ) shares were up 3.5% as the company won a multibillion-dollar contract to design and build a fighter jet for the US Air Force, beating Lockheed Martin (LMT). The fighter jet is set to be named Next Generation Air Dominance, or NGAD, and will replace Lockheed Martin's F-22 Raptor.

The 10-year US Treasury yield gained 1.6 basis points to 4.3%, while the two-year rate was down 2 basis points to 4%.

May West Texas Intermediate crude oil was up 0.1% at $68.18 a barrel.

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