Wall Street indexes gave up early gains and continued to slide, extending losses since Friday when Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s dovish speech on inflation sparked a massive selloff in the market.
The Fed chairman used his speech at the Jackson Hole economic symposium to reaffirm that the bank’s top priority is to get inflation under control even if that means more pain for businesses and households. Powell’s aggressive stance sent the Wall deep into the red on Friday, while the losses continued on Monday, with the S&P 500 losing a combined 4% over the past two sessions.
Meanwhile, strong data out today on consumer confidence and the labor market appear to give the Fed room to continue its aggressive rate hikes as the US economy appears to have strength.
Data showed consumer confidence strengthened in August after three months of declines, boosted by falling gasoline prices and the first signs of inflation slowing after a rally in previous months.
In particular, the consumer confidence index climbed to 103.2 points in August from 95.7 points in the previous month. The average estimate of analysts polled by the Wall Street Journal placed the index at 97.4 points.
At the same time, job openings climbed to 11.2 million in July from 11 million in June.
Indicators – Statistics
On the board, the Dow Jones lost 155.59 points, or -0.48%, to 31,951.10, while the S&P 500 fell 26.61 points, or -0.66%, to 4,003.97. The tech Nasdaq fell 104.22 points, or -0.87%, to 11,912.03.
Of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones industrial index, only four are moving with a positive sign and 26 with a negative sign. The biggest increase is noted by Nike with gains of $0.57 or 0.53% to $108.46, followed by Salesforce at $160.57 with an increase of 0.22% and Amgen with gains of 0.20% to $239.87
The stocks with the biggest losses are Caterpillar (-2.65%), Chevron (-2.13%) and Dow (-1.83%).
Wall Street’s big losses don’t seem to worry central bank officials, as shown by the latest statements by the president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank, Neel Kashkari, who, speaking to Bloomberg on Monday, pointed out that the plunge of the market after the statements Powell’s was well received.
“I was actually pleased to see how Powell’s speech in Jackson Hole was received … people now understand the seriousness of our commitment to get inflation back to 2 percent,” Kashkari said.
From the real estate market, data released today showed that price growth continued to slow over the summer.
Specifically, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller price index for 20 U.S. metropolitan areas rose 18.6% year-over-year in June, up from a 20.5% annual gain the previous month.
On a monthly basis, the index rose 0.4% in June, following a 1.3% rise in May.
In business developments, shares of Twitter lost 0.7% after Elon Musk sent a letter to the company formally informing it that he was ending the deal for the acquisition.
A 1.4% increase is also noted by Best Buy Inc. after announcing its latest quarter results that showed profit and revenue fell less than expected as they got a boost from stronger online sales.
Source: Capital
I am Sophia william, author of World Stock Market. I have a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and I have worked as a reporter for several news websites. I have a passion for writing and informing people about the latest news and events happening in the world. I strive to be accurate and unbiased in my reporting, and I hope to provide readers with valuable information that they can use to make informed decisions.
