(Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange opened lower on Monday on concerns over the U.S. Federal Reserve’s continued interest rate hikes as the U.S. economy continued to add jobs at a steady pace in March.

In early trading, the Dow Jones index lost 132.88 points, or 0.40% to 33,352.41 points and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 0.73% to 4,074.90 points. The Nasdaq Composite lost 1.07% or 129.27 points to 11,960.97.

The U.S. economy continued to add jobs at a brisk pace in March, bringing the unemployment rate down to 3.5% and may encourage the Federal Reserve (Fed) to raise interest rates again this month. next.

US central bank officials will have more inflation data available later in the month to gauge the impact of the year-long monetary policy tightening.

“Investors remain very optimistic that the (rate) hikes will end, but the data the Fed is so dependent on seems to leave room for an additional hike of at least 25 basis points,” said Rick Meckler, partner at Cherry Lane Investments.

The likelihood of a 25 basis point rate hike by the Fed in May rose from 57% last week to more than 65% after Friday’s jobs data, according to the CME’s Fedwatch tool. Group.

This week’s focus will be on US consumer and producer price data, March Fed meeting minutes and quarterly results from major US banks, including JPMorgan. , Citigroup and Wells Fargo.

Elsewhere, oil prices were down on Monday after surging 6% last week as concerns over slowing global growth could dampen fuel demand offsetting the news of the oil production cut expected by the United States. ‘OPEC+.

Brent fell 0.31% to 84.86 dollars a barrel and US light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) fell 0.16% to 80.57 dollars.

In values ​​Monday, Pioneer Natural Resources climbed 6.8% after information from the Wall Street Journal that the shale gas specialist would be in preliminary discussions with Exxon Mobil on a possible takeover by the latter.

The electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla fell 4.1% after announcing Friday a drop of 2 to nearly 6% of its prices in the United States, a decision which could impact its gross margin, analysts estimate.

Also lower, First Republic was down 1.1% after the troubled bank announced on Friday that it would suspend dividend payments on its preferred shares “as a prudent oversight measure”.

(Written by Kate Entringer)

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