Talked to community-service.tradeup.com
Based on the relevant information I have found, the U.S. stock market is trading in the red today, August 18, 2025, primarily due to the following factors:
📉 Economic Concerns:
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Retail Sales (July 2025): Grew by 0.5%, slightly below the previous month (0.6%). While still positive, it signals slowing consumer demand, a red flag for economic momentum.
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Unemployment Rate: Stands at 4.2%, remaining elevated, indicating persistent labor market softness.
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Employment Change (July): Only 73,000 jobs were added, showing weak hiring compared to previous months.
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Inflation Concerns: The Core PCE inflation remains at 2.8%, suggesting that inflation is still sticky, which could delay any Fed rate cuts.
📰 Market Sentiment & Events:
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Investors are also increasingly cautious ahead of the Jackson Hole Symposium, with uncertainty about Fed policy outlook.
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Tech sector weakness—particularly with stocks like Nvidia (NVDA) falling—has a broad drag on market indices.
On balance, bearish sentiment is currently stronger, driven by mixed economic data and anticipation of tighter or stagnant monetary policy.
Disclaimer: the above conclusion is just for reference and cannot be considered as investment ad