PARIS (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange fell in early trading on Thursday as the bigger-than-expected rise in U.S. producer prices raised fears that the Federal Reserve will continue raising interest rates for longer than expected. foreseen.

The Dow Jones index lost 331.07 points, or 0.97%, to 33,796.98 points and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 1.33% to 4,092.44 points.

The Nasdaq Composite lost 1.64%, or 198.11 points, to 11,872.483.

The producer price index rose by 0.7% last month after falling by 0.2% recorded in December and on an annual basis, the increase was 6.0% against 6.5%.

Economists polled by Reuters on average expected an increase of 0.4% over one month and 5.4% over one year.

“The inflation numbers continue to be higher than expected and don’t really show disinflation. The Fed is now expected to hike rates and be more aggressive going forward,” Chris Zaccarelli said. , at Independent Advisor Alliance.

“We are also seeing the job market remain very strong with lower claims than expected,” the manager added, referring to the slight drop in jobless claims over the week.

Signs of a strong economy coupled with accelerating consumer prices in January have recently raised concerns among traders, who were hoping to see the US central bank soon stop rising borrowing costs or even lower rates.

Cleveland Fed Chair Loretta Mester, who is not taking part in the committee’s vote this year, said the data supports a federal funds rate target above 5% for some time, despite progress. on inflation.

With falling government bond yields, major tech stocks fell: Tesla, Nvidia, Alphabet and Apple lost 0.93% to 3.12%.

Cisco Systems climbed 6.19% as the networking equipment maker raised its profit forecast for the full year.

(Laetitia Volga, edited by Blandine Hénault)

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