NEW YORK, New York – U.S. stocks started well on Thursday with the Dow Jones eventually pushing ahead more than 300 points, however as the day wore on investors began again to fret about the Fed.

“Wall Street couldn’t keep the upbeat mood,” Ed Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda told CNBC Thursday. “Some traders placed bets that the Fed will have to do a lot more tightening than what Wall Street is pricing in.”

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, was again shunned as investors soured on the group’s ability to compete with Microsoft and others over emerging advanced AI technology, particularly the platform ChatGPT. The stock lost a further $4.54 per share, or 4.54 percent, to close at $95.46.

A focus on earnings, and what companies are doing to tackle costs in the face of a recession also took the attention of investors.

“Wall Street wants to see companies taking action and reducing costs and expenses. That’s the name of the game right now. Not great for employees, but certainly good for shareholders,” Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth told Reuters news agency Thursday.

The Standard and Poor’s 500 closed at 4,112.43, a decrease of 5.43 points or 0.13 percent.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 33,885.17, a decline of 63.84 points or 0.19 percent.

In technology-focused markets, the NASDAQ Composite closed at 11,905.91, for a loss of 4.61 points or 0.04 percent.

The foreign exchange market closed with mixed results on Thursday. The Euro to U.S. dollar exchange rate saw a positive change of 0.22 percent, rising to 1.0733. The Japanese yen retreated by 0.23 percent to 131.64.

The Canadian dollar exchange rate experienced a modest 0.11 percent decline to 1.3460. The British pound had a strong day, with a 0.38 percent increase to 1.2115.

The Swiss franc exchange eased 0.20 percent, ending at 0.9227. The Australian dollar to U.S. dollar rate rose by 0.14 percent to 0.6932, while the New Zealand dollar to US dollar by 0.25 percent to 0.6322.

On overseas equity markets, the FTSE 100 in London closed at 7,911.15 for a gain of 25.98 points, which was a 0.33 percent increase. Meanwhile, the Dax in Germany closed at 15,523.42, an increase of 111.37 points or 0.72 percent.

The CAC 40 in France closed at 7,188.36, an increase of 68.53 points or 0.96 percent, while the Nikkei 225 in Japan closed at 27,584.35, a deficit of 22.11 points or 0.08 percent. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong closed at 21,624.36, for an increase of 340.84 points or 1.60 percent.

The SSE Composite Index in China finished the day at 3,270.38, an increase of 38.28 points or 1.18 percent, and the Shenzhen Index in China closed at 12,048.27, an increase of 194.81 points or 1.64 percent.

The Singapore Straits Times Index let go 29./04 points or 0.86 percent to 3,359.48.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 39.80 points or 0.53 percent to close at 7,490.30. Across the Tasman, New Zealand’s S&P/NZX 50 shed 93.29 points 0.76 percent to 12,118.67.

The S&P/TSX Composite index in Canada closed at 20,597.75, a decline of 81.79 points or 0.40 percent.

Other notable indices included the Top 40 USD Net TRI Index in Johannesburg, which closed at 4,493.17, a gain of 20.60 points or 0.46 percent,

(Photo credit: Big News Network news agency).