NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks finished mostly lower yesterday (July 14) following another troubling inflation report as disappointing banking earnings set a downcast tone about the second-quarter earnings season.
For the second day in a row, US indices tumbled after data showed an acceleration in wholesale prices instead of the hoped-for moderation.
But markets rallied somewhat from session lows as some investors grabbed a bargain-hunting opportunity.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.5%, or about 140 points, to finish at 30,630.17 after falling more than 600 points earlier in the day.
The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 0.3% to 3,790.38, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index edged up less than 0.1% to 11,251.19.
The Labor Department reported that US producer prices rose 1.1%, topping expectations, on a 10% surge in energy prices, more than double the increase in May.
US Federal Reserve governor Christopher Waller, who has previously backed another 75 basis point interest rate increase at the upcoming policy meeting, signalled he was open to an even larger full percentage point increase, if upcoming economic data comes in too strong.
Shares of JPMorgan Chase fell 3.5% after the big US bank reported a 28% drop in quarterly earnings and set aside additional funds in case of bad loans in results that missed analyst expectations. – AFP