US markets end lower on Thursday

23 Sep 2022 Evaluate

The US markets ended lower on Thursday. The weakness on markets reflected continued concerns about the economic outlook following the Federal Reserve’s third straight 75 basis point interest rate hike on Wednesday. While the Fed’s economic projections provided a clearer outlook for future rate hikes, traders remain concerned about the impact the aggressive rate increases will have on the economy. Several other central banks around the world followed the Fed's lead, including the Bank of England, which raised interest rates by 50 basis points in a split decision. The next Fed meeting is over a month away, giving traders a lot of time to analyze incoming economic data and try to determine the effect of the recent string of rate hikes. On the sectoral front, Airline stocks extended the nosedive seen over the two previous sessions, with the NYSE Arca Airline Index plummeting by 2.8 percent to its lowest closing level in over two months. Banking stocks also saw significant weakness on the day, dragging the KBW Bank Index down by 2.5 percent to a two-month closing low.

On the economic data front, potentially signaling a recession, the Conference Board released a report showing its index of leading US economic indicators declined for the sixth consecutive month in August. The Conference Board said its leading economic index fell by 0.3 percent in August after sliding by a revised 0.5 percent in July. Street had expected the leading economic index to come in unchanged compared to the 0.4 percent drop originally reported for the previous month. Meanwhile, after reporting modest decreases in first-time claims for US unemployment benefits for five straight weeks, the Labor Department released a report showing an uptick in jobless claims in the week ended September 17th. The report showed initial jobless claims inched up to 213,000, an increase of 5,000 from the previous week's revised level of 208,000. Street had expected jobless claims to edge up to 218,000 from the 213,000 originally reported for the previous week.

Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 107.1 points or 0.35 percent to 30,076.68, Nasdaq dropped 153.39 points or 1.37 percent to 11,066.81 and S&P 500 was down by 31.94 points 0.84 percent to 3,757.99.

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