US markets end sharply lower amid inflation worries

11 Jun 2022 Evaluate

Extending their previous session’s losses, the US markets settled lower on Friday with sharp cut amid concerns over consumer price inflation. The Labor Department released a report showing consumer prices in the U.S. shot up by more than expected in the month of May, raising concerns about the outlook for interest rates. The Labor Department said its consumer price index jumped by 1.0 percent in May after rising by 0.3 percent in April. Street had expected consumer prices to increase by 0.7 percent. With the bigger than expected monthly increase, the annual rate of consumer price growth accelerated to 8.6 percent in May from 8.3 percent in April, showing the biggest surge since December 1981. The annual growth was expected to be unchanged. Excluding food and energy prices, core consumer prices climbed by 0.6 percent in May, matching the growth seen in the previous month. Core prices were expected to rise by 0.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the annual rate of core consumer price growth slowed to 6.0 percent in May from 6.2 percent in April. Street had expected the pace of growth to decelerate to 5.9 percent. The bigger than expected increase in consumer prices is likely to convince the Federal Reserve to follow through on its plans to aggressively raise interest rates in an effort to combat inflation. The Fed is scheduled to announce its latest monetary policy decision next Wednesday, with the central bank widely expected to raise interest rates by another 50 basis points. Adding more pessimism on the Street, a separate report released by the University of Michigan showed consumer sentiment in the U.S. has tumbled to its lowest level on record in the month of June. The preliminary data showed the consumer sentiment index plunged to 50.2 in June from 58.4 in May. Street had expected the index to edge down to 58.0.

Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 880 points or 2.73 percent to 31,392.79, Nasdaq dropped 414.20 points or 3.52 percent to 11,340.02 and S&P 500 was down by 116.96 points or 2.91 percent to 3,900.86.

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