US markets settle significantly lower amid interest rate worries

23 Apr 2022 Evaluate

Extending their precious session’s losses, the US markets settled significantly lower on Friday amid concerns about the Federal Reserve aggressively tightening monetary policy. On Thursday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said he saw merit in ‘front-end loading’ policy moves and indicated a 50 basis point rate hike would be on the table at the central bank's next meeting in early May. CME Group's FedWatch Tool currently indicates a 50 basis point rate hike at the May meeting is a near certainty. Traders may also have been moving out of stocks ahead of the release of a deluge of earnings news from big-name companies next week. Coca-Cola (KO), General Electric (GE), Alphabet (GOOGL), Microsoft (MSFT), Boeing (BA), McDonald's (MCD), Twitter (TWTR), Amazon (AMZN), Intel (INTC) and Exxon Mobil (XOM) are just a few of the companies due to report their quarterly results.

On the sectroal front, steel stocks turned in some of the market's worst performances on the day, dragging the NYSE Arca Steel Index down by 3.9 percent to its lowest closing level in a month. Substantial weakness was also visible among healthcare stocks, as reflected by the 3.6 percent plunge by the Dow Jones U.S. Health Care Index. The index also tumbled to a one-month closing low. Hospital operator HCA Healthcare (HCA) helped lead the sector lower, plummeting by 21.8 percent after reporting first quarter earnings that missed analyst estimates.Airline stocks also showed a significant move to the downside on the day, resulting in a 3.5 percent nosedive by the NYSE Arca Airline Index. Brokerage, chemical and computer hardware stocks also moved considerably lower, reflecting broad based selling pressure on Wall Street.

Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 981.36 points or 2.82 percent to 33,811.40, Nasdaq fell 335.36 points or 2.55 percent to 12,839.29 and S&P 500 was down by 121.88 points or 2.77 percent to 4,271.78.

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