Investors balanced a strong U.S. jobs report against worries the Fed’s plans to bring down inflation may cause a recession.
U.S. markets opened lower on Monday after a rout last week, with investors still brooding over the prospect of and. The Dow fell 339 points, or 1%, and the S&P 500 fell 1.7%. The heavy-tech Nasdaq was down 2.3% as of 10:00 a.m. Eastern time/ A turbulent week on Wall Street and the stock market’s fifth straight weekly decline. The pullback came as investors balanced a strong against worries the Federal Reserve may cause a recession in its drive to halt inflation and the ongoing war in Ukraine. „The overwhelming focus continues to be on inflation, rising interest rates, and the war in Ukraine,“ Brian Price, head of investment management at Commonwealth Financial Network, said in a note. „The combining factors of tight supply chains resulting from China’s zero Covid policy, and rising oil and food prices due to the war in Ukraine, are causing inflationary fears that are triggering a move out of risk assets.“ The Fed is hoping to raise rates and slow the economy enough to snuff out the highest inflation in four decades, but it risks choking off growth if it goes too far or too quickly.
