US markets end in red on Thursday

15 Mar 2024 Evaluate

The U.S. markets ended lower on Thursday amid renewed concerns about the Federal Reserve further postponing its first interest rate cut following the release of hotter-than-expected inflation data. The Labor Department released a report showing producer prices increased by much more than expected in the month of February. The Labor Department said its producer price index for final demand climbed by 0.6 percent in February after rising by 0.3 percent in January. Street had expected producer prices to rise by another 0.3 percent. The report also said the annual rate of producer price growth accelerated to 1.6 percent in February from a revised 1.0 percent in January. Street had expected the year-over-year price growth to rise to 1.1 percent from the 0.9 percent originally reported for the previous month.

On the sectoral front, housing stocks saw substantial weakness on the day, resulting in a 3.0 percent nosedive by the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index. Interest rate-sensitive telecom stocks also saw considerable weakness, dragging the NYSE Arca North American Telecom Index down by 2.3 percent. Significant weakness was also visible among biotechnology stocks, as reflected by the 2.0 percent slump by the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index. Steel, banking and semiconductor stocks also saw notable weakness, while software and oil service stocks bucked the downtrend.

Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 137.66 points or 0.35 percent to 38,905.66, Nasdaq fell 49.24 points or 0.3 percent to 16,128.53 and S&P 500 was down by 14.83 points or 0.29 percent to 5,150.48. 


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