US markets settle in red on concerns about monetary policy tightening

15 Dec 2021 Evaluate

The US markets settled in red, following the sharp pullback seen in the previous session, as some large tech stocks moved lower. Concerns about the outlook for monetary policy continued to weigh on the markets, as the Federal Reserve's two-day meeting got underway. With inflation remaining at an elevated rate, the Fed is widely expected to accelerate its timetable for reducing bond purchases. The Labor Department released a report showing producer prices increased by more than expected in the month of November. The report said the producer price index for final demand advanced by 0.8 percent in November after climbing by 0.6 percent in October. Street had expected producer prices to rise by 0.5 percent. With the stronger than expected monthly price growth, the annual rate of producer price growth accelerated to 9.6 percent in November from 8.8 percent in October. The Labor Department said the year-over-year spike reflected the largest advance since 12-month data were first calculated in November 2010.

Further, lingering worries about the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus have also generated some selling pressure after the World Health Organization warned the new variant is spreading faster than previous strains. On the sectoral front, software stocks turned in some of the market's worst performances on the day, resulting in a 3.3 percent nosedive by the Dow Jones US Software Index. Considerable weakness was also visible among housing stocks, as reflected by the 1.8 percent slump by the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index. Oil service stocks also came under pressure over the course of the session after seeing early strength, dragging the Philadelphia Oil Service Index down by 1.6 percent.

Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 106.77 points or 0.3 percent to 35,544.18, Nasdaq dropped 175.64 points or 1.14 percent to 15,237.64 and S&P 500 was down by 34.88 points or 0.75 percent to 4,634.09.

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