The S&P 500 financials sector gave the S&P 500 its biggest boost, while technology was its biggest drag.Investors are assessing how aggressive the Federal Reserve will be as it tightens policy after Fed Chair Jerome Powell this week said that the central bank needed to move “expeditiously”to combat high inflation and raised the possibility of a 50-basis-point hike in rates in May.
That is causing bank stocks to outperform, while “adding more pressure to the riskier elements of the market,” such as growth shares, he said. Higher rates tend to be a negative for tech and growth stocks, whose valuations rely more heavily on future cash flows.According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 gained 23.78 points, or 0.53%, to end at 4,543.94 points,while the Nasdaq Composite lost 21.86 points, or 0.15%, to 14,173.22.Shares of growth companies like Microsoft Corp and Nvidia Corp eased after leading a Wall Street rebound this week.
Economists at Citibank are expecting four 50 basis points interest rate hikes from the Fed this year, joining other Wall Street banks in forecasting an aggressive tightening path against the backdrop of soaring inflation.The Ukraine-Russia conflict will keep investors on edge over the weekend. Moscow signaled it was scaling back its ambitions in Ukraine to focus on territory claimed by Russian-backed separatists.
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