PARIS (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange fell at the start of the session on Thursday, the announcement of more sustained growth in the American economy in the third quarter heightening fears about monetary tightening by the Federal Reserve (Fed).
In early trading, the Dow Jones index lost 294.99 points, or 0.88%, to 33,081.49 points and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 1.11% to 3,835.3 points.
The Nasdaq Composite lost 1.48%, or 158.203 points, to 10,551.167.
Futures on Wall Street’s benchmark indices deepened their losses after the Commerce Department’s publication of gross domestic product up 3.2% over the July-September period at an annualized rate, a figure noted compared to the previous estimate of 2.9%.
Another indicator released an hour before the opening showed that weekly jobless claims rose less than expected last week in the United States.
“GDP growth has been revised upwards much more than expected…if the economy is too strong, the Fed may have to raise rates more than expected,” said Robert Pavlik at DakotaWealth.
“You combine that with the jobless claims, that just fuels the scenario that the Fed needs to be more restrictive in its policy,” the manager added.
Fears of a recession caused by central banks’ inflation offensive have hit global equities hard this year.
The S&P-500, a benchmark index for investors, is currently down 18.6% annually, its worst performance since the 2008 financial crisis.
In US corporate news, Micron lost 3.16% after saying it expected a heavier-than-expected quarterly loss, citing the significant mismatch between supply and demand in the chip market.
Qualcomm, Advanced Micro Devices, Intel and Nvidia fell from 2.45% to 3.03%.
(Laetitia Volga, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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