Dow Dips Over 300 Points; US Inflation Increases More Than Expected

U.S. stocks traded lower this morning, with the Dow Jones index falling over 300 points on Wednesday.

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.79% to 44,240.00 while the NASDAQ fell 0.47% to 19,551.48. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.61% to 6,031.34.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares fell by just 0.1% on Wednesday.

In trading on Wednesday, real estate shares dipped by 1.4%.

Top Headline

The headline Consumer Price Index rose to 3% year-over-year in data released Wednesday, up 0.1 percentage points compared to December and above median economist forecasts of 2.9%, as tracked by TradingEconomics. On a monthly basis, inflation grew by 0.5%, sharply outpacing expectations of 0.3% and accelerating from December's 0.4% gain.

Equities Trading UP
                       

Equities Trading DOWN

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.5% to $72.20 while gold traded down 0.5% at $2,919.30.

Silver traded up 0.5% to $32.475 on Wednesday, while copper rose 0.6% to $4.6305.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 fell 0.1%, Germany's DAX 40 rose 0.2% and France's CAC 40 fell 0.2%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 0.9%, while London's FTSE 100 rose 0.1%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Wednesday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 gaining 0.42%, China's Shanghai Composite Index rising 0.85%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index jumping 2.64% and India's BSE Sensex falling 0.16%.

Economics

  • U.S. mortgage applications increased by 2.3% from the previous week during the first week of February, following a 2.2% rise from the earlier week.
  • The headline Consumer Price Index rose to 3% year-over-year in data released Wednesday, up 0.1 percentage points compared to December and above median economist forecasts of 2.9%, as tracked by TradingEconomics.

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