US markets end lower on Thursday

28 Jan 2022 Evaluate

The US markets ended lower on Thursday, after moving sharply higher early in the session, as investors mulled over an update from the Federal Reserve. The Federal Open Market Committee this week strongly indicated the first interest rate hike since late 2018 could come as soon as March. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell rattled markets Wednesday saying the central bank has quite a bit of room to raise rates before negatively impacting employment. However, the markets initially showed a positive reaction to a Commerce Department report showing stronger than expected GDP growth in the fourth quarter of 2021. The report showed real gross domestic product spiked by 6.9 percent in the fourth quarter after jumping by 2.3 percent in the third quarter. Street had expected GDP to surge up by 5.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the Labor Department released a report showing initial jobless claims pulled back in the week ended January 22nd following a bigger than expected increase in the previous week. The report said initial jobless claims fell to 260,000, a decrease of 30,000 from the previous week's revised level of 290,000. Street had expected jobless claims to drop to 260,000 from the 286,000 originally reported for the previous week. On the sectoral front, Semiconductor stocks moved sharply lower over the course of the session, dragging the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index down by 4.8 percent to its lowest closing level in over three months. Substantial weakness also emerged among gold stocks, as reflected by the 2.6 percent slump by the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index.

Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 7.31 points or 0.02 percent to 34,160.78, Nasdaq fell 189.34 points or 1.4 percent to 13,352.78 and S&P 500 was down by 23.42 points or 0.54 percent to 4,326.51. 

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