NEW YORKWall Street closed lower on Friday, posting its first weekly loss in five weeks for the S&P 500 and eight for the Nasdaq, discouraged by central banks’ toughness on inflation.
The Dow Jones index, down all week, fell 0.65% on Wall Street on Friday to 33,727.43 points. The technology-based Nasdaq lost 1.01% to 13,492.52, and the broader S&P 500 index fell 0.77% to 4,348.33 points.
For the week, all three indices fell around 2%.
“It’s the ghost of the interest rate hikes and the strict message from the central banks” that depressed the market, summarized Peter Cardillo, of Spartan Capital, who in any case played down the drop volumes.
“The tone of the central banks is the excuse to go down, but the fact is that the market has advanced strongly in the last three months and that generates profit taking,” the analyst explained to AFP.
On Thursday, the president of the Federal Reserve (Fed, central bank of the United States), Jerome Powell, told the Senate that the majority of the members of the organization are in favor of a couple of additional interest rate hikes before the end of anus.
For its part, the Bank of England raised its rates for the thirteenth time in a row on Thursday, to 5%. The Bank of Norway did the same to bring its reference rates to 3.75%.
Turkey’s central bank raised its main policy rate to 15% on Thursday, in a sharp move at its first monetary policy meeting since the presidential election.
Finally, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) also raised its rates, 0.25 points, to 1.75%.
Among the values of the day, this Friday Ford lost 1.20%, after The Wall Street Journal evoked a new wave of layoffs and massive cost reductions by the manufacturer.
Used car dealer Carmax rose 10.07% to $86.21, a nine-month high, after better-than-expected first-quarter results.
Tesla and Rivian lost 3.03% and 4.38% respectively in the electric car sector.
Starbucks for its part fell 2.49%. One of the firm’s unions plans a strike next week at more than 150 stores.
FUENTE: With information from AFP
