The Dow Jones closes down 0.58% to 34,552.99 points and the Nasdaq ends down 0.40% to 13,838.46 points.
The New York Stock Exchange ended modestly lower following more aggressive rhetoric from the Fed boss on interest rates as oil prices resumed their run up.
According to final results at the close, the Dow Jones index, which had experienced its best weekly period since the end of 2020, fell by 0.58% to 34,552.99 points. The Nasdaq, with strong technological coloring, dropped 0.40% to 13,838.46 points. The broader S&P 500 index stagnated at 4,461.19 points (-0.04%).
“Stocks fell on comments from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell that seemed more hawkish than following last week’s monetary policy meeting,” where the Fed raised rates for the first time since 2018, it said. Schwab analysts.
Monday, at a conference on the economy in Washington, the president of the US central bank appeared even more determined to raise rates quickly to counter inflation.
“Inflation is much too high”, launched the leader and the Fed “will take the necessary measures for a return to price stability”.
In this speech, Jerome Powell also “left the door open for a half basis point (0.50%) rate hike at one of the next meetings of the Monetary Committee”, warned John Higgins, economist at Capital Economics.
Following the comments, stocks that had started the session weakly fell further, the dollar strengthened and bond yields rose sharply.
Yields on 10-year Treasury bills rose to over 2.30% for the first time in almost three years, from 2.14% on Friday.
“Mr Powell’s comments caused a bit of a sell-off when he indicated that if necessary the Fed would get more aggressive on inflation, but I don’t think that will reverse last week’s rebound because we we are heading towards a new season of corporate results in regarding three weeks,” judged Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital.
Markets also continue to grapple with uncertainty regarding the implications of the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Oil prices resumed their frantic race forward, the barrel of Brent from the North Sea climbing 7.12% to 115.62 dollars.
Falling Boeing
Listed, shares of Boeing, a member of the Dow Jones, suffered (-3.59% to 185.90 dollars) following the announcement overnight that a Boeing 737-800 crashed in the south of China, with 132 people on board, the deadliest accident in this country.
Chinese President Xi Jinping said he was “in shock”, state television CCTV reported, in an unusual hot reaction.
This accident comes as the American aircraft manufacturer was preparing to resume deliveries of the 737 MAX, a different plane, which was grounded for a long time following two disasters.
Warren Buffett’s group, Berkshire Hathaway (+2.11% to 349.63 dollars), announced its plan to buy Alleghany, a holding company specializing in insurance, for 11.6 billion dollars.
Alleghany Corp, whose subsidiaries deal in particular with home and damage insurance and reinsurance, took 24.69% to 843.87 dollars.
Anaplan, a company specializing in cloud computing solutions, jumped 27.91% to $64.71 following it announced that it had been acquired by US private equity firm Thoma Bravo for around $10.7 billion. .
Oil companies have soared with the rise in prices such as Exxon Mobil (+4.50%) or Occidental Petroleum (+8.39%).
Shares Meta (Facebook) fell 2.31% to $211.49 following a Moscow court banned US social networks Facebook and Instagram in Russia on Monday, finding them to be carrying out “extremist” activities.
New York-listed Manchester United shares gained 4.26% following an analyst’s note favorably compared its market value to that of rivals Chelsea.
