Editor
Wall Street’s main indexes declined due to lower-than-expected real estate sales and PPI reports.
Inflation raises the head question for the U.S. economy, and investors fear a second wave of consumer price inclination. Wall Street declined hours after the release of the U.S. PPI inflation report, and it was not expected even by the most pessimistic analysts.
The U.S. PPI inflation rate was higher than previous market expectations of 0.3% on a month-to-month basis. The index jumped higher by 0.6%, which is double the previous estimation. Every year, the situation remains the same: PPI reports were higher than market expectations; the report shows that inflation rose by 1.6%, surpassing market expectations by 1.1% year over year.
The report wasn’t a surprise for some due to the higher-than-expected consumer price index report. The report was released on Tuesday, which shows that CPI was significantly higher than market expectations. The report showed that CPI was higher by 3.1% compared to the market estimation of 3.1% and 0.1% in the previous month.
In other economic nations, retail sales haven’t been good either. Despite the monthly increase, U.S. retail sales were below the market average. Today, the U.S. stock market was also heavily hit by disappointing quarterly sales data. The report released earlier shows a 0.6% month-to-month increase, while marketers were expecting at least a 0.8% increase. On top of that, the weekly unemployment numbers show that the U.S. employment filling for unemployment stood at 209.000.
With today’s data, investors will surely turn their attention to next week’s Fed meeting, which will discuss the main reasons why inflation is increasing.
Last week, the U.S. Federal Reserve confirmed that its border would move cautiously in the next few minutes. The currency move is the most effective way to ensure that the monetary cycle is completed without any economic downturns.
Meanwhile, in the stock market, Wall Street main indexes fell hours after the lower-than-expected PPI and real sales data. The S&P 500 benchmark was down by 0.26% to 5,151.90 basis points. The teach-heavy composite nasadq declined by 0.19% to 16.143.80 basis points. The Dow index also plummeted by 0.36% to 38.901.50 basis points.
Moving to individual stock news, today’s tips were as follows:
- Under Armour (NYSE: UA) fell 8% due to concerns about the strategy following the return of founder Kevin Plank as CEO amidst economic challenges.
- Fisker (NYSE: FSR) slumped 45% amid reports of potential bankruptcy filings and hiring advisers.
- Robinhood’s (NASDAQ: HOOD) stock surged 10% after reporting strong growth in assets under custody for February.
- Dollar General (NYSE: DG) soared 6.3% with an upbeat 2024 sales forecast, expecting steady demand from price-conscious shoppers.
In other news, the U.S. House of Representatives agreed to ban TikTok in the U.S., a move that will greatly improve relations between the two countries, the U.S. and China. “Though the U.S. has never found any evidence of TikTok posing a threat to U.S. national security, it has never stopped going after TikTok,” said Wang Wenbin, spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
China has reacted to a new U.S. House bill targeting TikTok, indicating worsening U.S.-Sino relations. The bill aims to ban TikTok unless its operations separate from Chinese parent ByteDance. Titled “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” it drew criticism from Beijing, accusing Washington of bullying tactics.
