Reuters/Yonhap News
On March 14 (Eastern Time), all three major New York Stock Exchange indices fell.
According to Yonhap News, on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the Dow Jones 30 Industrial Average ended down 137.66 points (0.35%) 38,905.66.
The Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 Index closed at 5,150.48, down 14.83 points (0.29%) from the previous session, and the Nasdaq Index closed at 16,128.53, down 49.24 points (0.30%) from the previous session.
The market focused on economic indicators such as producer prices, retail sales, and the movements of tech stocks like Nvidia.
According to the Department of Labor, the February Producer Price Index (PPI) rose 0.6% from the previous month, significantly outperforming the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) aggregated expert forecast and the January figure of 0.3%.
Producer prices have risen for two consecutive months, and the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for January and February also generally exceeded expectations, intensifying inflation concerns since the beginning of the year.
However, the market still expects the Federal Reserve (Fed) to cut its first interest rate in June. However, the possibility of a rate cut has decreased to 60% from over 70% a week ago.
The US consumer indicators announced today showed weaker-than-expected performance.
According to the US Department of Commerce, US retail sales in February were recorded at $700.7 billion, up 0.6% from the previous month on a seasonally adjusted basis. This is lower than the market’s expected increase of 0.8%, but it is an improvement from the 1.1% decrease recorded last month.
The number of new unemployment insurance claims for the week ending March 9 was 209,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis, down 1,000 from the previous week’s revised figure. This figure was lower than the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) aggregated expert forecast of 218,000, indicating that the unemployment indicator is not significantly worsening.
The market also monitored the movements of large tech stocks such as Nvidia.
Nvidia’s stock price has fallen more than 3% daily for four of the past five trading days, and the Nasdaq Index has followed this trend.
Nvidia’s stock price is approaching a technical correction after falling about 9.7% from recent highs. AMD’s stock price also fell about 4% on the day. Super Micro Computer’s stock price also fell nearly 5%.
Tesla’s stock price fell more than 4% on the second consecutive day after UBS lowered Tesla’s target price from $225 to $165, following Wells Fargo. Tesla’s stock price has fallen about 20% this month.
Conversely, Apple rose more than 1%, Amazon 1.2%, Alphabet 2.3%, and Microsoft (MS) 2.4%.
Robinhood’s stock price rose more than 5% after the company announced a 16% increase in custodial assets from the previous month.
Despite the news that Dollar General, a US discount retailer, exceeded quarterly earnings expectations, its stock price fell more than 5% as the net profit forecast for the current quarter fell below expectations.
Dick’s Sporting Goods, a sports goods retailer, saw its stock price rise about 15% on news that its earnings exceeded expectations and the quarterly dividend was increased by 10%.
MicroStrategy’s stock price fell more than 5% after the company announced it would issue additional convertible bonds to buy Bitcoin.
The stock price of electric startup Fisker plunged more than 51% on news that it is preparing to file for bankruptcy protection.
US Steel’s stock price fell more than 6% after President Joe Biden officially opposed the acquisition plan of Nippon Steel.
Among the 11 sectors in the S&P 500 Index, energy and telecommunications stocks rose, while the remaining nine sectors all fell. Real estate, utilities, essential consumer goods, and financial sectors led the decline.
New York stock market experts said recent inflation indicators could retreat expectations for a Fed rate cut.
Lawrence Werther, a senior economist at Daiwa, said, “The PPI excluding food and energy did not signal that price pressures are accelerating again, up 2.8% from the same period last year, but it did give the impression that recent progress is stagnating.” He added, “This will prevent the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) from gaining additional confidence that inflation will persist on the decline and return to 2% and will retreat expectations for a pivot possibility.”
According to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) FedWatch, the possibility of the Fed cutting interest rates in June was 62.9% at the close of the Federal Funds (FF) interest rate futures market, slightly down from the previous day.
The Chicago Options Exchange (CBOE) Volatility Index (VIX) recorded 14.40, up 0.65 points (4.73%) from the previous session.
Most Commented