US: Stocks fall amid worries over inflation, equity valuations

WALL Street stocks fell Friday (Aug 20) on lingering worries about inflation and higher equity valuations, snapping a four-week winning streak of weekly gains.

Major indices were in the red the entire session, reflecting unease over expected monetary tightening following troubling inflation reports this week in Britain and Germany, said Karl Haeling of LBBW.

“It just reminds people that central banks policies have to be hawkish still,” Haeling said. “It was really the inflation data both out of the UK and Germany that really gave everything the bearish push.”

Analysts also said markets were primed for a pullback after a strong run in July and the first part of August.

The broad-based S&P 500 finished at 4,228.48, down 1.3 per cent for the day and a bit more than 1 per cent for the week in the index’ first decline in 4 weeks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.9 per cent to 33,706.74, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 2 per cent to 12,705.22.

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Among individual companies, Occidental Petroleum surged almost 10 per cent after US authorities granted Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway permission to acquire up to 50 per cent of the energy company’s common shares.

Bed Bath & Beyond plunged more than 40 per cent after activist investor Ryan Cohen sold his stake in the home goods store.