US markets settle in red on Thursday

17 Dec 2021 Evaluate

The US markets ended lower on Thursday amid weakness among large tech stocks. The pull back on Wall Street came as traders continued to digest the Federal Reserve's highly anticipated monetary policy announcement on Wednesday. The Fed announced its widely expected decision to accelerate the pace of tapering its asset purchases and forecast as many as three interest rate hikes next year. While some stocks benefited from reduced uncertainty about the outlook for monetary policy, high-growth tech stocks fell sharply amid concerns about the impact of higher interest rates.

Traders were also reacting to a slew of US economic data, including a Labor Department report showing a modest rebound in first-time claims for unemployment benefits in the week ended December 11th. The Labor Department said initial jobless claims rose to 206,000, an increase of 18,000 from the previous week's revised level of 188,000. Street had expected jobless claims to inch up to 195,000 from the 184,000 originally reported for the previous week. Meanwhile, the Fed also released a report showing US industrial production increased by less than expected in the month of November. The report said industrial production rose by 0.5 percent in November after surging by an upwardly revised 1.7 percent in October. Street had expected industrial production to climb by 0.7 percent compared to the 1.6 percent jump originally reported for the previous month.

Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 29.79 points or 0.08 percent to 35,897.64, Nasdaq dropped 385.15 points or 2.47 percent to 15,180.43 and S&P 500 was down by 41.18 points or 0.87 percent to 4,668.67.

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