by David French
(Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange ended sharply lower on Friday to end its worst week since the start of the year, as persistent inflation in the United States raised fears of further tightening by the Federal Reserve. than expected in terms of rising interest rates.
The Dow Jones index fell 1.02%, or 336.99 points, to 32,816.92 points.
The broader S&P-500 lost 42.28 points, or 1.05%, to 3,970.04 points.
The Nasdaq Composite fell for its part by 195.46 points (-1.69%) to 11,394.94 points.
Over the week, the Dow lost 3.0%, the S&P-500 2.7% and the Nasdaq 3.3%. In percentages, this is the largest weekly drop since September for the Dow, which had also not experienced four consecutive weeks in the red since April-May 2022, while the S&P-500 and the Nasdaq are experiencing their worst week since December.
January statistics released by the Commerce Department on Friday showed a stronger-than-expected rebound in consumer spending, the main driver of activity in the United States, amid rising wages, while inflation accelerated again, with the PCE consumer price index posting its strongest rise since last June at +0.6%.
These data confirm a trend already drawn by several other macroeconomic indicators on activity and inflation in the United States, which could encourage the Fed to extend the tightening of its monetary policy beyond what investors envisaged. .
This outlook hurt digital giants in particular, whose valuations are very sensitive to changes in interest rates. Alphabet, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft all lost around 2%.
Adobe fell 7.63% in response to reports that the US Department of Justice is preparing to block its plan to buy Figma.
Boeing for its part sold 4.8% after the suspension of deliveries of the 787 Dreamliner for additional analyzes on an element of the fuselage of the device.
Beyond Meat, on the other hand, jumped by just over 10%, the specialist in food substitutes for meat beginning to reap the benefits of its cost control policy.
* The reminder of the session in Europe: [.EUFR]
* TO BE FOLLOWED ON MONDAY:
(Written by Johann M Cherian and Sruthi Shankar in Bangalore and David French in New York, with Sinead Carew, French version Bertrand Boucey)
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