Fed Minutes Press end of session. Wall Street closes in the red – stock market

The session on Wall Street ended the same way it began: in the red. The conclusion of the day was marked by the release of the minutes of the latest US Federal Reserve (Fed) meeting, with the tech meeting dropping the most.

The Dow Jones Industrials Index fell 0.50% to 33980.32 points, while the S&P 500 fell 0.72% to 4,274.04 points. For its part, the Nasdaq Technology Composite Index fell 1.25% to 12,938.12 points.

The Fed revealed in its meeting minutes that it fears high inflation will take hold in the US economy if the market begins to incorporate a slower pace of US interest rate hikes. “Participants [no encontro] I considered that there was a significant risk to the Committee that high inflation could take root if the public began to question whether the Committee would adequately adjust its policy stance,” the minutes note.

The market, on the one hand, weighed the possibility that inflation had already peaked, after the fall in the consumer price index in July, as well as good corporate results during the “earnings season”.

According to Bloomberg, four out of five companies that provided accounts have achieved results that expected or even exceeded analyst estimates.

On the other hand, investor sentiment has been pressured by the fact that the US has entered a technical recession and given the prospects of continued monetary tightening of the Federal Reserve, which could exacerbate this scenario.

During this session, in addition to these concerns and good news, investors were still digesting the US retail sales figures which rose 0.7% higher than expected.

Among the major market moves, Target shares stood out, dropping 2.66%, after the retailer reported results that were lower than analysts’ expectations.

On the other hand, Lowe’s grew 0.54% after the building materials vendor released fourth-quarter results that beat experts’ expectations.