Wall ‘stumbled’ to the finish – Losses for fear of recession

The Wall Street index ended Wednesday’s session with small losses, as they failed to maintain the pace they gained from about the middle of the session onwards, gradually losing the small gains they had accumulated and returning to negative ground shortly before the close. day, under the weight of risk aversion that has returned to the stock market today.

The session started sharply declining, after yesterday’s temporary rebound, which added 640 points or 2.2% to the Dow Jones and pushed the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 2.5% higher each, with investors focusing on the lead deposit. of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, to the Congressional Finance Committee.

The head of the Fed today confirmed, on the first day of his submission to the Commission, the intention of the Federal Reserve to continue its “attack” against inflation, reiterating the “unwavering commitment” of policymakers to reduce inflation from high 40 years that he has climbed, while assuring that he is not in the intentions of the central bank to lead the US economy into recession.

“It is crucial that we reduce inflation in order to have a prolonged period of strong labor market conditions for the benefit of all citizens,” the US Federal Reserve said in a statement to the Senate.

He said inflation remained well above the Fed’s official target of 2%, although there was some evidence that the non-food price and energy cost index, two major categories, could have peaked or even peaked. has declined somewhat in the last month.

He added, however, that so far inflation has surprised and it is not ruled out that other surprises may follow, justifying the aggressive policy pursued by the Fed.

“We believe that the forthcoming interest rate hikes will be appropriate; the pace of these changes will continue to depend on the incoming data and the evolving economic outlook,” Powell said, adding that “we will make our decisions from meeting to meeting and continue to communicate our reasoning as clearly as possible “.

At the same time, he assured that the US economy is very strong and can withstand a tighter monetary policy and consequently the interest rate hikes that will follow.

Powell’s remarks, however, allayed investor concerns that a sharp rise in interest rates by the Fed to curb galloping inflation would eventually lead to a downturn in the US economy, saying a recession was “possible.” to launch once again the risk aversion in the investor ranks, intensifying volatility on the board.

Indicators – Statistics

And although after the middle of the session the investors made another attempt to lead the market higher for a second day, it was not possible to eliminate the worries about recession, as a result of which the indices turned red shortly before the end of the bell.

In particular, the Dow Jones industrial average closed the day at 30,483.13 points, or 47.12 or 0.15% lower than closing on Tuesday. The broader S&P 500 closed with losses of 0.13% at 3,759.89 points, while the technological Nasdaq closed at 11,053.08 points, down 0.15%.

The picture in the titles of the blue chips index is almost divided, with 14 shares writing gains and the remaining 16 closing with losses. The biggest gains were recorded by the shares of United-Health (+1.95), Johnson & Johnson (+ 1.58%) and Procter & Gamble (+ 1.56%). On the other hand, the biggest losses were recorded by the titles of Dow Inc (-4.75%), Caterpillar (-4.35%) and Chevron (-4.35%).