by Stephen Culp
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange fell again on Thursday after the announcement of an acceleration in inflation in February in the United States, in an environment still highly volatile due to the Russian military offensive in Ukraine, which should itself fuel the rise in prices due to its repercussions on world commodity markets.
The Dow Jones index fell 0.34%, or 112.18 points, to 33,174.07 points.
The broader S&P-500 lost 18.35 points, or 0.43%, to 4,259.53 points.
The Nasdaq Composite, with a strong technological component, fell for its part by 125.58 points (-0.95%) to 13,129.96 points.
These three indices, however, ended above their lows for the day, the day after a session of strong rebound which seems to have been only a parenthesis in a deeper movement of decline in the equity markets, in particular on the Nasdaq.
The Labor Department announced Thursday that the rise in prices in the United States had reached 7.9% year on year in February, a level not reached for 40 years.
While this inflation is in line with economists’ expectations and only confirms the prospect of a rate hike from the Federal Reserve next week, investors now fear that it will become firmly anchored at a high level with the war in Ukraine, launched on February 24, and the Western sanctions against Russia, which are causing a surge in the prices of oil and gas and other raw materials.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said last week that he would support a quarter-point rate hike at the next monetary policy committee meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday. However, he also warned that he stood ready to act more forcefully if inflation did not fall as expected.
The prospect of this monetary tightening is particularly hurting the new technologies sector, which is sensitive to rate hikes. Apple, for example, lost 2.7%.
Contrary to this trend, Amazon gained 5.4% thanks to a division by 20 of the nominal value of its shares and a new share buyback plan of 10 billion dollars (9.06 billion euros). euros).
Also on the rise, energy stocks continue to benefit from geopolitical tensions, even if oil prices fell on Thursday, while remaining very high. ExxonMobil took 3.1% and Chevron 2.7%.
(Stephen Culp report, with Chuck Mikolajczak in New York and Devik Jain in Bangalore, French version Bertrand Boucey)
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