US: Dow plunges 680 points, ends 2% lower on inflation data

[NEW YORK] Wall Street stocks finished an ugly session with hefty losses on Wednesday following US consumer inflation data that exacerbated worries about a sudden shift in monetary policy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 2.0 per cent to 33,587.66, losing around 680 points.

The broad-based S&P 500 fell 2.1 per cent to 4,063.04, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 2.7 per cent to 13,031.68.

Worries about higher prices have been a theme among investors in recent weeks, at times prompting pullbacks. The fear is that a jump in prices will lead to a sudden tightening of Federal Reserve policy, jolting markets.

The Labor Department reported the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 4.2 per cent last month compared to April 2020, far above expectations, according to Labor Department data.

A third of the month-on-month CPI increase was due to a 10 per cent jump in prices of used cars and trucks. Airfares also rose significantly from March, another sign of recovery after pandemic-related weakness.

Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities, said pricing in many of these areas should normalise once more supply becomes available.

"What happens, eventually, is high prices fix high prices," Mr Hogan said. "That just simply means that when prices get too high, there's a supply response, and that supply response may take a while but it certainly will come." The Fed has said it views this jump in prices as transient and not requiring a shift in monetary policy.

But "the market is saying there's no way the Fed can look at these numbers and not adjust monetary policy, in a timeframe that's sooner than we anticipate," Mr Hogan said.

AFP