NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks ended mixed on Tuesday (April 11) as investors tried to look past downturn worries ahead of this week’s inflation data, which will be closely watched for its impact on central bank decisions.
The movements came as the International Monetary Fund trimmed its global growth forecast while a Federal Reserve (Fed) official urged caution about raising interest rates too aggressively.
“Today’s headlines didn’t tell Wall Street anything it didn’t already know,” said Edward Moya of the Oanda trading platform, echoing analyst sentiment that lower global growth was likely already priced-in by markets.
But he said he expects that upcoming inflation figures will likely support one more rate increase by the Fed, to rein in stubborn price increases.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 98.27 points, or 0.29%, to 33,684.79; the S&P 500 lost 0.17 points, essentially flat, at 4,108.94; and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 52.48 points, or 0.43%, to 12,031.88.
“We are definitely in a bit of a wait-and-see period for the markets,” said Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers.
With the consumer price index (CPI) to be released on Wednesday, producer price index due on Thursday and bank earnings on Friday, he added: “There is going to be a lot for the markets to digest.”
Beyond the CPI, investors are eyeing first-quarter reporting season, which surges from the starting gate on Friday with results from three major banks, Citigroup Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Wells Fargo & Co.
Analysts expect aggregate first-quarter S&P 500 earnings falling 5.2% year-on-year, a stark reversal from the 1.4% annual growth seen at the beginning of the quarter. – AFP, Reuters