US Market falls on policy tightening woes

The US share market finished session lower on Tuesday, 12 April 2022, after erasing earlier gains, as concerns over impending monetary tightening from the Federal Reserve after remarks from Fed Governor Lael Brainard, who reiterated the need for the central bank to "expeditiously" take on decades-high inflation.

At the close of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index dropped 87.72 points, or 0.26%, to 34,220.36. The S&P500 index fell 15.08 points, or 0.34%, to 4,397.45. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index sank 40.38 points, or 0.3%, to 13,371.57.

Advancing stocks outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE exchange by 1662 to 1646 and 158 closed unchanged. In the NASDAQ, 2071 issues advanced, 2642 issues declined, and 313 issues unchanged.

 

All 7 major S&P 500 sector indexes declined, with bottom performing issues were financials (down 1.07%), healthcare (down 0.95%), and communication services (down 0.81%), while top performing issues included energy (up 1.7%) and utilities (up 0.41%).

The weak finish of Wall Street was also due to continued increase in treasury yields, with the yield on the benchmark ten-year note reaching its highest levels in three years.

ECONOMIC NEWS: US Consumer Prices Accelerate In March- US consumer price index surged by 1.2 percent in March after climbing by 0.8 percent in February, reflecting a spike in gasoline prices, the Labor Department reported on Tuesday. The jump in consumer prices came as gasoline prices skyrocketed by 18.3 percent, accounting for over half of the monthly increase. Food prices also shot up by 1.0 percent. Meanwhile, the report showed core consumer prices, which exclude food and energy prices, edged up by 0.3 percent in March after rising by 0.5 percent in February. The uptick in core prices reflected an increase in prices for shelter along with higher prices for airline fares, household furnishings and operations, medical care, and motor vehicle insurance. The annual rate of consumer price growth accelerated to 8.5 percent in March from 7.9 percent in February, showing the fastest growth since December 1981. Core consumer prices were up 6.5 percent year-over-year in March, reflecting an uptick from the 6.4 percent jump in February. The annual growth represents the biggest increase since August 1982.

Among Indian ADR, Wipro declined 2.04% to $7.21, HDFC Bank sank 2.58% to $60.40, Tata Motors fell 3.44% to $28.31, Dr Reddy's Labs fell 0.93% to $56.62, ICICI Bank fell 0.51% to $19.70, INFOSYS fell 2.08% to $22.57 and Azure Power Global dropped 5.12% to $14.83. WNS Holdings added 0.66% to $85.32.

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