NEW YORK: US stocks retreated in early trading Thursday from the gains scored in the prior session, after seeing more data confirming the blistering pace of US inflation amid a stall in Ukraine-Russia peace talks.
“Markets like certainty. Right now we’re seeing a lot more uncertainty,” Adam Sarhan of 50 Park Investment told AFP.
Consumer prices in February continued to rise at a 40-year high, spiking 7.9 percent amid rising costs for gasoline, food and housing, the Labor Department data said.
“Everything that makes up inflation is going bonkers,” Sarhan said, warning “it really slows down growth and that becomes stagflation.”
The Federal Reserve is poised to raise interest rates next week for the first time since slashing them to zero at the start of the pandemic to get a handle on inflation.
Wall Street rebounds on bank, tech boost
But the war is driving energy and food prices higher, which will complicate the Fed’s efforts to sustain the economic recovery.
Major stock indices on Wednesday scored gains of more than two percent amid tentative signs of hope in the Ukraine conflict, causing oil prices to plunge more than 10 percent.
About 30 minutes into trading on Thursday, the benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.6 percent to 33,120.39,
The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 0.9 percent to 4,240.34 while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 1.4 percent to 13,067.12.
Oil prices in contrast rebounded after losses the prior day, with the key US contract for West Texas Intermediate up 1.4 percent to $110.07.
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