US stocks quickly rolled over on Thursday despite opening higher. A hotter than expected wholesale inflation print served as one of the last pieces of data that could sway the Federal Reserve at its policy meeting next week.
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) slid 0.4% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) fell 0.3% or 100 points.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (^IXIC) also fell 0.4% after Nvidia (NVDA) and Tesla (TSLA) dragged stocks lower on Wednesday.
February’s producer price index rose 0.6%, higher than an expected increase of 0.3%. Investors were watching whether inflation is cooling fast enough to satisfy Fed policymakers and herald interest-rate cuts. That said, the market shrugged off signs of sticky inflation in Tuesday’s CPI report and stuck to their hopes for a policy pivot come summer.
Meanwhile retail sales increase 0.6%, coming in short of estimates for a rise of 0.8%. Eyes were closely watching Thursday’s data release for clues on the health of the US economy ahead of the central bank’s two-day meeting next week.
In commodities, oil’s revived rally continued to build after the IEA warned that supply would lag this year and US stockpiles shrank. WTI crude futures (CL=F) traded just above $80 per barrel and touched their highest levels since November, while Brent crude futures (BZ=F) pushed toward $85.
On the corporate front, Fisker’s (FSR) shares plunged almost 40% after a Wall Street Journal report that the EV maker is exploring a bankruptcy filing.
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