Major indices started the day in the green, but after looking for some trends to key into shares dropped at midday and couldn’t pull out of the red. The declines were amid a jolt in new home purchases and signs of rising inflation as well as a dip in crude oil prices — seemingly good news reflecting an improved economy.
However, investors fretted that such economic strength would trigger an interest rate hike sooner than later — a sentiment that Wall Street was obsessed over for the past week. As a result, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.58 percent to 18,011.14 while the S&P 500 lost 0.61 percent to 2091.50. The WWD Global Stock Tracker finished the day down 0.11 percent to116.66.
Earlier in the day the Labor Department’s core Consumer Price Index (CPI) came in with a seasonally adjusted 0.2 percent increase for February. Core retail prices (minus food and energy) also gained 0.2 percent. Overall retail apparel prices gained as well.
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