(Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange ended sharply lower on Friday after the publication of results deemed mediocre by investors who fear the effects of worrying inflation which could encourage the Fed to tighten its monetary policy further.
The decline in the New York indices worsened throughout the meeting and the Dow Jones ended down 2.77%, or 939.18 points, 32,977.21 points.
The broader S&P-500 lost 155.71 points, or -3.63%, to 4,131.79 points.
The Nasdaq Composite plunged on its side from 536.89 points (-4.17%) to 12,334.64 points.
Over one month, the Nasdaq suffered its sharpest decline since 2008 while the S&P lost 13.3% since the start of the year, which had not happened to it since the first four months of 1939.
The personal consumption expenditure (PCE) price index rose 0.9% in March, the biggest rise since 2005, after rising 0.5% in February. In the 12 months to March, the PCE price index rose 6.6%. This is the largest annual rise since 1982 and follows a 6.3% year-on-year increase in February.
In stocks, Amazon plunged 14.05% after reporting a loss and forecasts deemed worrying. Apple lost 3.66%, again for raising doubts about its outlook.
On the oil market, WTI stood at $104.35 (-0.94%) and Brent at $109.33 (+1.68%).
The dollar was down -0.41% against a basket of currencies a few minutes after the close of Wall Street, while the euro stood at 1.0545 dollars (+0.49%).
On the bond market, ten-year paper took 6.7 basis points to settle at 2.9297%. Its five-year counterpart advanced 7.6 basis points to 2.9583%.
(French version Nicolas Delame)