US markets end mostly higher on Wednesday

15 Jul 2021 Evaluate

The US markets ended mostly higher on Wednesday amid a positive reaction to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's prepared remarks before the House Financial Services Committee. Powell reiterated the belief that substantial further progress towards the Fed's goals of maximum employment and price stability is still a ways off, suggesting the central bank is not likely to begin tightening monetary policy anytime soon. The Fed chief also once again stressed that the Fed will provide advance notice before announcing any changes to its asset purchase program. Powell acknowledged that inflation has increased notably and will likely remain elevated in coming months but predicted inflation would moderate as the effects of the production bottlenecks unwind.

On the economic data front, the Labor Department released a report showing US producer prices jumped by much more than expected in the month of June. The Labor Department said its producer price index for final demand surged up by 1.0 percent in June after climbing by 0.8 percent in May. Street had expected producer prices to rise by 0.6 percent. The bigger than expected increase in producer prices was largely due to an advance in prices for services, which accounted for nearly 60 percent of the jump by the headline index. Prices for final demand services climbed by 0.8 percent in June, as prices for trade services spiked by 2.1 percent and prices for transportation and warehousing services increased by 0.9 percent.

Dow Jones Industrial Average added 44.44 points or 0.13 percent to 34,933.23 and S&P 500 was up by 5.09 points or 0.12 percent to 4,374.3, while Nasdaq dropped 32.7 points or 0.22 percent to 14,644.95.

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