US: Stocks flat as Powell warns of longer inflation fight

WALL Street stocks ended little changed on Tuesday as markets digested mixed economic data and Federal Reserve commentary suggesting interest rates would remain high for longer.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said reining in inflation could take “longer than expected” following recent economic data that have pushed back expectations for interest rate cuts.

The comments came after US industrial production increased as expected while building permits and housing starts lagged behind estimates.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 0.2 per cent at 37,798.97.

The broad-based S&P 500 fell 0.2 per cent to 5,051.42, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 0.1 per cent to 15,865.25.

Earlier, the International Monetary Fund lifted its US growth forecast for 2024 to 2.7 per cent, up 0.6 per cent from the January forecast as its chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas characterised the global economy as “quite resilient.”

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Analysts have cited worries about the Middle East as a constraint on stocks, along with a rise in US Treasury yields amid shifting expectations for the Fed.

Among individual companies, UnitedHealth Group jumped 5.2 per cent after reporting better than expected results despite a US$872 million one-time charge connected to a “cyberattack.”

But Bank of America dropped 3.5 per cent as traders focused on the drag of higher interest payments to depositors on company results. AFP