by Noel Randewich and Ankika Biswas
(Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange ended lower on Tuesday as data indicating a slowing economy stoked fears that the U.S. Federal Reserve’s (Fed) rate hike campaign to combat the inflation causes a recession.
The Dow Jones index fell 0.59% to 33,403.04 points.
The broader S&P-500 lost 0.58% to 4,100.68 points.
The Nasdaq Composite fell for its part by 0.52% to 12,126.33 points.
All three major Wall Street indexes declined on the heels of a report showing the number of US job vacancies fell in February to a near two-year low, suggesting a tightening of the labor market.
Separate data indicate that factory new orders fell in February for a second consecutive month, after a survey released on Monday highlighted slowing manufacturing activity in the United States.
“The decline in the number of job vacancies has people worried that the slow pace of recruitment will be bad for the economy. This is fueling fears of a recession,” commented Sal Bruno, chief investment officer of ‘IndexIQ, in New York.
Markets and traders are swinging in their forecasts between another 25 basis point rate hike or a pause in this campaign at the Fed’s next monetary policy meeting.
The banking sector plunged after JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jaime Dimon warned in a letter to shareholders that the US banking sector crisis was still ongoing and its impact would be felt for years . Bank of America and Wells Fargo fell by more than 2%, as did the S&P-500 banking index.
Seven of the eleven major sectors of the S&P-500 ended the session in the red, including industrials and energy. The health care sector, considered by many investors to be one of the safe bets in the event of a recession, rose.
Side values, among the movements to note, the decline of 5.4% of Caterpillar, considered one of the pillars of the industrial sector.
A heavyweight in the technology sector, Nvidia lost 1.8% and weighed heavily on the S&P-500. Virgin Orbit Holdings plunged more than 23% after filing bankruptcy papers.
( Jean Terzian)
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