US markets end deeply in red on Thursday

22 Sep 2023 Evaluate

The US markets magnified previous session’s losses and ended deeply in red on Thursday. Concerns about the outlook for interest rates continued to weigh on markets following the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday. While the Fed left interest rates unchanged as widely expected, the central bank forecast another rate hike before the end of the year as well as keeping rates at elevated levels for longer than previously anticipated. The worries about interest rates contributed to a surge by treasury yields, with the yield on the benchmark ten-year note jumping to its highest level in almost sixteen years. Adding to the concerns about interest rates, the Labor Department released a report showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell to a seven-month low in the week ended September 16th. 

The report said initial jobless claims dipped to 201,000, a decrease of 20,000 from the previous week's revised level of 221,000. Street had expected jobless claims to inch up to 225,000 from the 220,000 originally reported for the previous week. On the sectoral front, Interest rate-sensitive commercial real estate stocks saw substantial weakness on the day, resulting in a 3.5 percent nosedive by the Dow Jones U.S. Real Estate Index. The index plunged to its lowest closing level in almost six months. Considerable weakness was also visible among housing stocks, with the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index tumbling by 2.7 percent to a three-month closing low. The weakness in the housing sector came after the National Association of Realtors released a report unexpectedly showing a continued decrease in existing home sales.

Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 370.46 points or 1.08 percent to 34,070.42, Nasdaq fell 245.14 points or 1.82 percent to 13,223.99 and S&P 500 was down by 72.2 points or 1.64 percent to 4,330.


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