By Sruthi Shankar and Ankika Biswas
(Reuters) – U.S. stock indexes fell on Monday on growing concerns that the Federal Reserve will continue to raise interest rates after Friday’s jobs data pointed to a resilient job market.
The Nasdaq led losses among major indexes after the long weekend, with growth stocks Apple, Amazon.com and Microsoft all falling between 1.7% and 2.1%.
US employers maintained a strong pace of hiring in March, data showed on Friday, lowering the jobless rate to 3.5% and increasing the chances that the Fed will raise rates again next month.
“Investors remain very optimistic that the (rate) hikes will come to an end, but the data the Fed is so dependent on seems to leave room for at least a 25 basis point hike once again,” said Rick Meckler, partner at Cherry Lane Investments.
“You have to step back and look at the bigger picture than just these week-to-week market battles over data. It will take a few more months to see if the economic slowdown continues or if consumer spending returns and once again rescues us from a true recession.”
Several economic indicators from the past week initially raised expectations of a break in the rate hikes that have been pummeling the market amid the recent turmoil in the banking sector.
However, the chances of a 25 basis point rate hike by the Fed in May increased to more than 65% after Friday’s jobs data, according to CME Group’s Fedwatch tool, from 57% for the week. last.
This week’s focus will shift to US consumer and producer price numbers, March Fed meeting minutes and quarterly results from major US banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. , Citigroup and Wells Fargo & Co .
At 11:04 am (Brasília time), the Dow Jones index operated stable, at 33,486.35 points, while the S&P 500 lost 0.69%, at 4,076.86 points. The Nasdaq Composite technology index fell 1.24% to 11,938.06 points.
#Wall #Street #falls #interest #rate #hike #employment #data #ISTOÉ #DINHEIRO