Dow Jones closes down 137.66 points, worries about inflation encourage the Fed to hold the dollar higher for longer than expected – Hua Seng Heng Hua Seng Heng

2024-03-15 01:08:06

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The Dow Jones New York Stock Exchange Index closed lower on Thursday (March 14) as investors worried that a higher-than-expected US Producer Price Index (PPI) could cause the Federal Reserve (Fed) to hold interest rates high for a long time. longer than expected

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 38,905.66 points, down 137.66 points or -0.35%, the S&P 500 Index closed at 5,150.48 points, down 14.83 points or -0.29%, and the Nasdaq Index closed at 16,128.53 points, down 49.24 points or -0.30%.

The US Department of Labor revealed that The Producer Price Index (PPI), which measures inflation in producer spending, rose 1.6% year-on-year in February. This was higher than analysts’ expectations of 1.1% after rising 1.0% in January.

The Core PPI index, which does not include food and energy categories, increased 2.0% in February year-on-year. This was higher than analysts’ expectations of 1.9% after rising 2.0% in January.

The higher-than-expected PPI index has investors worried that the Fed may hold interest rates high for longer than expected. It also caused the 10-year US government bond yield to surge above 4.2%, which also put pressure on the stock market.

CME Group’s latest FedWatch Tool indicates that investors give 62.9% weight to the Fed to cut interest rates by 0.25% at its June meeting. This is down from 81.7% last week. As for the meeting on March 19-20, investors expect the Fed to maintain interest rates at 5.25-5.50%.

Public utilities and real estate stocks are stocks that are sensitive to interest rates. decreased the most The real estate stock index fell 1.6% and the utilities stock index dropped 0.8%.

Indian shares fell 3.2%, while the semiconductor index fell 1.8%. The index has lost 3.5% this week as investors took profits after strong share prices in the US. In the past

Michael James, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, said concerns about the higher-than-expected PPI also affected stocks in the Russell 2000 Index, which is a group of stocks with low capitalization. The Russell 2000 Index fell. down 2%

For other economic data that was revealed last night. Initial claims for unemployment benefits fell 1,000 to 209,000 last week, the Labor Department said. and lower than analysts’ estimates of 218,000.

The US Department of Commerce revealed that Retail sales rose 0.6% month-over-month in February. But it was lower than analysts’ expectations of 0.8% after falling 1.1% in January and year-on-year. Retail sales rose 1.5% in February.

Source: InfoQuest News Agency

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