To The Moon

U.S. stocks slid Wednesday after the government's monthly retail sales report showed a slowdown in consumer spending activity, while a reading on wholesale inflation showed cooling prices.

Wall Street also continued to parse through corporate financial updates for signs of the “earnings recession” many analysts have warned about.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) tumbled 1.6% after reversing gains from earlier in the day, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) shed 600 points, or 1.2%. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) declined 1.2%. The Dow had its worst day of 2023, while the Nasdaq's losses snapped a seven-day winning streak.

Wall Street navigated a bevy of data, corporate earnings signals, and Fedspeak on Wednesday. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said Wednesday that he and colleagues should move interest rates above 5% "as quickly as we can" to rein in inflation before pausing the current hiking cycle.

The Commerce Department on Wednesday said retail sales in the U.S. fell 1.1% last month, while November's reading was also downwardly revised. Economists had expected a 0.8% decline in December.

Meanwhile, the Producer Price Index (PPI), which measures inflation at the wholesale level, decreased 0.5% last month — the biggest drop since early in the pandemic. Headline PPI rose at an annual 6.2% clip, down meaningfully from the year-over-year reading of 7.3% in November. The print comes one week after the Consumer Price Index (CPI) showed inflation ease to a cooler 6.5%.

Microsoft (MSFT) said Wednesday that it is laying off 10,000 workers as part of an effort to cut costs. The layoffs impact roughly 4.5% of the company's 221,000 total employees. Microsoft shares closed down 1.9%.

@Daily_Discussion