WALL STREET FINISHES DOWN
par Stephen Culp
NEW YORK (Archyde.com) – The New York Stock Exchange ended sharply lower on Tuesday as data on U.S. consumer confidence dampened investor optimism and stoked fears that the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) measures in the face of inflation pushes the economy into recession ahead of earnings season.
The Dow Jones index fell 1.56%, or 491.27 points, to 30,946.99 points.
The broader S&P-500 lost 78.56 points, or 2.01%, to 3,821.55 points.
The Nasdaq Composite fell for its part by 343.01 points (2.98%) to 11,181.54 points.
The Nasdaq saw the biggest decline in the session, weighed down by tech giants Amazon, Microsoft and Apple.
As we approach the end of the month and the end of the second quarter, the S&P-500 is heading for its largest percentage decline in the first half since 1970.
The three main Wall Street indices are expected to experience two consecutive quarters of decline for the first time since 2015.
“It’s a really bad start to the year, and 1970 is a pretty good analogy to where we are today, with war and inflation,” said Peter Tuz, president of Chase Investment Counsel in Charlottesville, Virginia.
“Markets were holding up well today until the release of consumer confidence data,” he added. “They immediately started selling.”
A monthly survey published today shows that US consumer confidence has fallen to its lowest level since February 2021, while short-term expectations have reached their most pessimistic level for nearly a decade.
Ten of the eleven major sectors of the S&P-500 ended in the red, with only energy advancing, benefiting from the rise in crude prices.
On the stock side, Nike fell 7.0% following reporting a profit forecast below expectations.
(French version Jean Terzian)
