In the first session after the long weekend, US stocks closed in shades of red. Concern about the Fed’s next steps prompted investors to prefer bonds over stocks, sending major US stock indexes lower, with a decline of about 2%.
Returning to trading after a break of three days – yesterday US markets were closed for a holiday -, investors showed increasing concern about the future decisions of the Federal Reserve (Fed) and preferred to resort to bonds, with “yields” to reach the maximum for this year (interests reached in 10-year debt 3.95%). a result? Wall Street’s major indices closed in deep red.
The stock markets also punished the not-so-encouraging outlook by retail giants Wal-Mart and Home Depot, who predicted a contraction in consumption.
In a broad “sell-off,” nine out of 10 listed S&P 500 closed lower, with all sectors of the index showing negative balance.
Investors increasingly believe that the Fed will maintain a policy of raising interest rates to control inflation, and the possibility of stopping or even reducing the “cost of money” is seen as a mirage.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.06% to 33,129.59 points, while the S&P 500 fell 2%, closing at 3,997.34 points. The Nasdaq Technology Composite Index was more punishing, losing 2.5% to 11,492.30 points.
The Dow Jones already has a marginally negative balance for the year: -0.05%. The S&P 500 is still up 4.11% in 2023, while the Nasdaq is up 9.8% since the start of the year.
Among the declines witnessed today were Tesla, which lost 5.25%, while Apple, Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft lost more than 2%. Home Depot sank more than 7%.
