US stocks were in retreat mode on Wednesday with investors continuing to take profits after Wall Street indices’ record highs, as jitters about inflation eroded risk appetite.
The Dow was down 0.9% at 38,522.69 by 1015 EDT, falling for the fifth time in the last seven days as it continues to pullback from the 40,000+ level reached on 17 May.
The Nasdaq, which hit a new closing high of 17,019.88 on Tuesday, was down 0.4% early on at 16,957.02 as the recent rally in Nvidia’s share price faded, while the S&P 500 fell 0.6% to 5,274.99, having touched a fresh peak last week.
“There’s been a big jump in US Treasury yields since Friday, and this appears to be weighing on sentiment. It’s also fair to say that there’s nothing out there which is undeniably positive. The first-quarter earnings season is pretty much done now, so there’s a risk that the market has lost one significant leg of support,” said David Morrison, senior market analyst at Trade Nation.
The yield on the 10-year US Treasury note was up a further 4 basis points at around the 4.6% mark – a level it has not seen since 1 May – as eyes start to turn towards Friday’s personal consumption expenditures index for April which will give investors their first glimpse of how inflation is faring in the first month of the second quarter.
Market forecasts are for annual inflation to have held steady at 2.7%, with the core rate unchanged at 2.8%….
