Stocks fell Thursday as investors weighed another red hot inflation report and its implications on the Federal Reserve's next moves. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
Here's how the market settled on Thursday:
S&P 500 Index
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Nasdaq Composite Index
Market participants have reacted to a week of unexpected economic results, with U.S. retail sales on Wednesday surging 3% in January reversing two consecutive months of declines despite persistently high inflationary pressures. Those continuous inflationary pressures were demonstrated on Tuesday with January's consumer price index (CPI) report coming in hotter-than-expected at a 0.5% monthly gain to an annual increase of 6.4%.
On Thursday, investors were met with more hot inflation data, with January's producer price index (PPI) increasing 0.7% for the month, above the 0.4% gain expected by economists. This marked the largest increase for wholesale prices since June. On a 12-month basis, headline PPI rose by 6%.
Core PPI, which excludes food and energy prices, rose by 0.5%, above expectations for a 0.3% increase. Core PPI excluding trade services rose 0.6%, also above estimates for a 0.2% rise.
Meanwhile, new U.S. home construction declined for a fifth month in January to the lowest level since June 2020 as increased mortgage rates continued to hamper on housing demand. Housing starts fell 4.5% to a 1.31 million annualized rate, according to the Commerce Department's report on Thursday. New building permits also declined by 0.1 to an annualized rate of 1.34 million.
Elsewhere, initial unemployment filings decreased to 194,000 from the week ended February 11, the Labor Department said Thursday, below estimates for 200,000. The previous week's total was revised slightly lower as well to 195,000 from 196,000. Investors have grown concerned that the labor market's resilience in spite of the central bank's interest rate hikes will keep the Fed aggressive as it works to stabilize prices.
On the earnings front, Paramount Global
Shopify
In other stock news, DocuSign
Google's
Looking ahead, investors will continue to look for signs of strength and weakness in quarterly corporate earnings reports. DropBox