US Market tumbles on aggressive rate hike woes

11 Feb 2022 , 08:38 AM

The US stock market finished session lower on Thursday, 10 February 2022, in the wake of data showing inflation reached a new four-decade high, raising the stakes on whether the Federal Reserve will plot a more aggressive path on interest rates.

At the close of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index declined 526.47 points, or 1.47%, to 35,241.59. The S&P500 index was down 83.10 points, or 1.81%, to 4,504.08. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 304.73 points, or 2.1%, to 14,185.64.

Declining stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE exchange by 858 to 2527 and 118 closed unchanged. In the NASDAQ, 1460 issues advanced, 3264 issues declined, and 218 issues unchanged.

All 11 major S&P 500 sector indexes declined, with bottom performing issues were real estate (down 2.86%), information technology (down 2.75%), utilities (up 2.61%), and industrials (down 1.65%).

ECONOMIC NEWS: US Consumer Prices Jump To 40-Year High- US consumer prices in January surged by 7.5 percent compared to the same month a year ago, reflecting the fastest annual growth since February of 1982. Inflation rate stayed at a 40-year high, suggesting upward pressure on consumer prices is unlikely to relent soon and putting more pressure on the Federal Reserve to act. The report showed core consumer prices, which exclude food and energy prices, also advanced by 0.6 percent in January, matching the increase seen in December. The annual rate of growth in core prices accelerated to 6.0 percent in January from 5.5 percent in December, showing the biggest jump since August of 1982. The January CPI is likely to heighten the central banks urgency to hike rates.

US Initial Jobless Claims Fall For Third Straight Week- US first-time claims for unemployment benefits showed another modest decrease in the week ended February 5th, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Thursday. The report said initial jobless claims fell to 223,000, a decrease of 16,000 from the previous weeks revised level of 239,000. Jobless claims fell for the third straight week after reaching a three-month high in mid-January amid the surge in coronavirus cases.

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