NEW YORK — More concerns about inflation and interest rates staying high knocked U.S. stocks lower on Tuesday, as the market closed out its worst month because September.
The S&P 500 toppled 1.6% to cement its initially losing month in the last 6. Its momentum knocked into reverse in April, falling as much as 5.5% at one point, after setting a record at the end of March.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 570 points, or 1.5%, and the Nasdaq composite lost 2%.
Stocks started sinking as quickly as trading started, after a report revealed U.S. employees won larger gains in incomes and advantages than anticipated throughout the veryfirst 3 months of the year. While that’s great news for employees and the newest signal of a strong task market, it feeds into concerns that upward pressure stays on the economy and inflation.
It followed a string of reports this year that haveactually revealed inflation stays stubbornly high. That’s triggered traders to mostly provide up on hopes that the Federal Reserve will provide numerous cuts to interest rates this year. And that in turn hasactually sentout Treasury yields leaping in the bond market, which has cranked up the pressure on stocks.
Tuesday’s losses for stocks spedup at the end of the day as traders made their last moves before closing the books on April, and ahead of an statement by the Federal Reserve on interest rates arranged for Wednesday afternoon.
No one anticipates the Federal Reserve to modification its primary interest rate at this conference. But traders are nervous about what Fed Chair Jerome Powell might state about the rest of the year.
Traders are now primarily wagering the Fed will cut rates either one or no times through the balance of 2024, according to information from CME Group. That’s a huge disappointment after traders came into the year forecasting 6 or more cuts.
The Fed itself was ear