The US markets closed lower on Monday as renewed assault on oil prices eroded investor confidence ahead of the start of fourth-quarter earnings season. Meanwhile, as investors turned away from equities, havens such as government bonds and gold rallied. Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart stated that the US economy is motoring ahead in its recovery, likely putting the Federal Reserve in position to raise interest rates by the middle of the year. Lockhart expects that reasonably strong growth will continue through 2015, unemployment will fall, and inflation will eventually begin to rise - a set of conditions that should allow the Fed to raise rates by the middle of the year. The comments from a Fed centrist give an important insight into how the US central bank is steadily moving towards a rate hike that will put a formal end to its era of crisis response.
On the economy front, momentum in the labor market appears to be accelerating. The Fed’s labor market conditions index, which weighs 19 different economic indicators, rose to 6.1 in December from an upwardly revised 5.5 in November, which marks the highest level since May. That’s well above the 1.9 median reading in the history of the series, which dates back to 1976.
Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 96.53 points or 0.54 percent to 17,640.84, Nasdaq declined by 39.36 points or 0.84 percent to 4,664.71 and S&P 500 dropped 16.55 points or 0.81 percent to 2,028.26.
Indian ADRs closed mixed on Monday; HDFC Bank was down 0.47%, Tata Motors was down 0.18% and Infosys was down 0.04%. On the other hand, Dr. Reddy’s Lab was up by 0.64% and Wipro was up 0.06%.
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