Stock Market Today: Wall Street Follows Fall in Global Markets | WGN Radio 720

Wall Street fell Wednesday after some mixed earnings reports from big US companies and another sign that inflation continues to heat up around the world. The S&P 500 dropped 0.4% in early trading, threatening to wipe out the gains it has made so far this week. The Dow and Nasdaq also fell. Rising bond market yields, boosted by reports that Britain’s inflation rate is still above 10%, are hurting some high-growth and tech stocks. Tesla has fallen after announcing its fourth price cut of the year in the US. Travelers shares posted their biggest gains in more than three years after reporting a strong first quarter.

This is breaking news. A previous article from AP is below.

Wall Street trails falling global markets early Wednesday ahead of another pile of corporate earnings reports and a potential new ploy by central banks.

S&P futures fell 0.6% ahead of the Bell and the Dow fell 0.3%.

Surprisingly strong earnings reports have supported the market in recent days. With inflation rising, interest rates rising and parts of the economy slowing, expectations were low heading into the season.

Wall Street analysts had predicted the steepest decline in earnings per share for S&P 500 companies since the pandemic hit the economy in 2020.

American Express and major railroad companies will report quarterly results this week, and after Wednesday’s bell, Tesla will report its first quarter results.

Tesla shares fell about 2% before Wednesday’s bell after Elon Musk’s electric car company cut prices again. This is the fourth time this year that we have lowered our prices. Shares of the Austin, Texas automaker have fallen nearly 50% in the past 12 months.

Reports from smaller regional banks, such as KeyCorp and Zions Bancorp, are gaining attention as the large, so-called “too big to fail” banks have posted strong earnings recently. Second largest US bank failure in history and his third.

A bigger concern for the economy is that the banking industry’s woes could cause lending to retreat, putting pressure on an economy already strained under the weight of much higher interest rates.

Inflation has slowed but remains high, and traders widely expect the Fed to raise rates again at its next meeting in May.

Britain’s food prices rose at their fastest pace in 45 years last month, according to Wednesday’s report, and inflation fell to 10% for the seventh straight month amid a cost-of-living crisis that has fueled a wave of government strikes. is exceeded. Worker.

The 10.1% figure was slightly below the previous month’s 10.4%, but it showed that the UK government and the Bank of England were struggling to prevent the price hikes caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine from working into the economy. is showing.

In Europe at noon, the UK’s FTSE 100 fell 0.3% and Germany’s DAX fell 0.2%. France’s CAC 40 remained flat.

In Asian trading, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 fell 0.2% to close at 28,606.76. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose nearly 0.1% to 7,365.50. South Korea’s Kospi rose nearly 0.2% to 2,575.08. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.4% to 20,367.76. The Shanghai Composite fell 0.7% to 3,370.13.

The news that China’s economic growth accelerated to 4.5% annualized in the most recent quarter has not had much of an impact on stocks. While consumption and retail sales grew, other indicators such as industrial output and fixed asset investment showed weak and uneven recovery.

“While the worst may still be over, it suggests that the recovery is more gradual than a one-time miracle,” IG market analyst Yeap Jun Rong said in a report.

In energy trading, benchmark US crude fell $1.58 to $79.28 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange electronically. International benchmark Brent crude fell $1.66 to $83.11 a barrel.

In currency trading, the US dollar rose to 134.84 yen from 134.12 yen. The euro fell from he $1.0975 to he $1.0934.

The S&P 500 rose 0.1% on Tuesday while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell less than 0.1%. The Nasdaq Composite was down less than 0.1%.

——

Kageyama reported from Tokyo. Ott reported from Silver Spring, Maryland.