The US markets extended their previous session’s losses and ended significantly lower on Wednesday with cut of around 2 per cent each, amid concerns about the accelerating pace of inflation following the release of the Labor Department's report on consumer prices in the month of April. The Labor Department said its consumer price index climbed by 0.8 percent in April after rising by 0.6 percent in March. Street had expected consumer prices to inch up by 0.2 percent. Excluding food and energy prices, core consumer prices also advanced by 0.9 percent in April following a 0.3 percent uptick in March. Core prices were expected to rise by another 0.3 percent.
The much bigger than expected jump in core consumer prices reflected the largest increase since April of 1982. With the much bigger than expected monthly increase, consumer prices in April were up by 4.2 percent compared to the same month a year ago, reflecting the biggest jump since September of 2008. Core consumer prices also surged up by 3.0 percent year-over-year, marking the biggest annual increase since January of 1996. The significantly faster price growth raised concerns about the outlook for monetary policy even though the Federal Reserve has repeatedly downplayed the risks of inflation. The Fed has indicated that it won't begin tightening monetary policy until inflation is moderately above its 2 percent target for ‘some time’.
Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 681.50 points or 1.99 percent to 33,587.66, Nasdaq dropped 357.74 points or 2.67 percent to 13,031.68 and S&P 500 was down by 89.06 points or 2.14 percent to 4,063.04.