Small losses on Wall Street in the wake of the Fed

Key Wall Street indexes are moving with small losses on Thursday after the first increase of the Federal Reserve interest rates from 2018 and the announcement of a rather aggressive approach in the coming months to control the fastest inflation of the last 40 years.

The US Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 25 basis points yesterday, confirming analysts’ estimates that the enormous geopolitical uncertainty from the war in Ukraine leaves no room for the Fed to raise more aggressively by 50 basis points.

At the same time, the Fed has shown that it expects another six interest rate hikes in 2022, with the chairman of the central bank reiterating that he will not allow high inflation to be consolidated in the US economy.

The climate today is aggravated by the new rally of oil prices, after three days of losses, with the WTI climbing again above the psychological level of $ 100 a barrel with a jump of 6%.

Indicators – Statistics

On the board, the Dow Jones lost 47.89 points or -0.14% at 34,026.42 points. The S&P 500 is down 7.49 points or -0.17% at 4,350.69 points, while the tech Nasdaq is slipping 54.89 points or -0.40% to 13,382.60 points.

Of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones industrial average, 11 are moving with a positive sign and only 19 with a negative one. The largest increase was recorded by American Express with gains of $ 6.39 or 3.54% at $ 187.00, followed by Merck with gains of 1.14% to $ 79.01 and IBM at $ 127.91. with an increase of 0.68%.

The shares with the biggest losses are Goldman Sachs Group (-0.97%), Boeing (-0.85%) and Intel (-0.81%).

Meanwhile, Russian military bombardment of Ukraine continues as the war enters its fourth week, although the two sides continue their contacts in an effort to reach a peace agreement.

US President Joe Biden has called Vladimir Putin a “war criminal”, while Washington has given the green light for new military aid to Ukraine. Meanwhile, Congress has begun preparing for new sanctions against Russia.

At the end of the day, data released today showed that initial unemployment benefit applications fell by 15,000 in the week ended March 12, to 214,000.

At the same time, house starts rose 6.8% in February to 1.77 million, while the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index rose to 27.4 points in March from 16 points a month earlier.