by Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW YORK, March 30 (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange ended lower on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones and the S&P-500 seeing an end to a series of four sessions in the green, amid recent signs of an advance in talks between Russia and Ukraine have eased, on the sidelines of concerns that US Federal Reserve (Fed) policy is hurting economic growth.
The Dow Jones index fell 0.19%, or 65.38 points, to 35,228.81 points.
The broader S&P-500 lost 29.15 points, or 0.63%, to 4,602.45 points.
The Nasdaq Composite fell for its part by 177.36 points (1.21%) to 14,442.28 points.
While Moscow promised during talks held in Turkey on Tuesday that it would significantly reduce its operations in northern Ukraine, the Russian army’s bombardment of the capital Kyiv and Chernihiv continued on Wednesday.
Despite rebounding more than 5% this month after starting the year with two monthly declines, the S&P-500 is on course for its first quarterly decline since the start of 2020, a period during which the coronavirus epidemic was declared with virulence in the United States.
While recently making gains, equities remain highly volatile amid news of the Russia-Ukraine crisis, with soaring inflation fueled by rising oil and metal prices since the start of the month. the war, February 24.
“Ukraine is the story that drives the market,” said Rick Meckler, partner at Cherry Lane Investments in New Vernon, New Jersey, citing fluctuations in energy prices.
“Some kind of normalcy for the global economy would be a really positive sign for the market,” he added.
Soaring inflation is prompting speculation of more aggressive monetary policy from the Fed, which began raising interest rates this month and whose moves could hurt economic growth.
Unlike the day before, the energy sector was the best performing of the major S&P-500 sectors, rising 1.17%, and is now up nearly 40% year-to-date.
Data released during the day show that the job market remains solid in the private sector in the United States.
On the value side, Lululemon Athletica jumped 9.58% after announcing forecasts of annual turnover and profit above expectations.
(French version Jean Terzian)