The U.S. markets ended lower on Wednesday as global crude oil prices surged past the $100 per barrel mark following an escalation in U.S.-Iran hostilities, intensifying inflation fears and reinforcing expectations of a Federal Reserve interest rate hike next week. Investors also adopted a wait-and-watch approach ahead of the release of the U.S. Producer Price Index (PPI) on Thursday and the Consumer Price Index (CPI) on Friday, for clues about the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate path.
On the sectoral front, Retail stocks showed a substantial move to the downside on the day, dragging the Dow Jones U.S. Retail Index down by 1.5 percent. Considerable weakness was also visible among networking stocks, as reflected by the 1.4 percent loss posted by the NYSE Arca Networking Index. Telecom, housing and transportation stocks also saw notable weakness, while oil and gold stocks moved higher along with the prices of their associated commodities.
Dow Jones Industrial Average declined by 405.41 points or 0.77 percent to 52,380.66, Nasdaq dropped by 168.07 points or 0.64 percent to 26,253.34 and S&P 500 decreased by 37.16 points or 0.48 percent to 7,636.36.
About The Author
