President of the Federal Reserve (Fed) United States (US), Jerome Powell confirmed that the central bank will act more aggressively in stemming inflation as well as making stock indexes fall.
Wall Street stock markets initially traded in positive territory, the result of Tesla's strong corporate earnings support and unemployment data hitting a 52-year low, starting to turn red by midday if Powell states the possibility of a 50-point increase in profit rates at the May meeting. .
In addition, further comments from Powell suggesting 'more rapid moves' are needed, have validated investors' expectations of the central bank's commitment to fighting inflation.
According to Tim Ghriskey, right-hand portfolio strategist for Ingalls & Snyder New York, the market is relieved that the Fed has finally authorized its aggressive move, so this may preclude any possible deeper type of slippage.
On the other hand, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.05% at 34,792.76, the S&P 500 lost 1.48% at 4,393.66 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 2.07% at 13,174.65.
The MSCI world equity index which tracks a total of 45 other countries' stocks also lost 1.12% with Japan's Nikkei 225 closing at 27,553.06.
Meanwhile, the benchmark 10-year treasury yield fell 2.896% from 2.981% while the 2-year yield, which is sensitive to efficacy, fell 2.686% from 2.730% recorded the previous day.
The currency summary saw the dollar index finish at 100,578 while the Japanese yen traded at 128.36 per dollar and the Australian dollar fell at $0.7364.
The commodity formula also saw Brent crude up 1.4% at $108.33 a barrel and US crude adding 1.6% at $103.79 a barrel, while spot gold was also down 0.33% at $1,951.03.
