STOCKS on Wall Street finished largely flat Monday as traders prepared for fresh consumer inflation data that could provide new clarity on the US Federal Reserve’s battle against rising prices.
The Fed has held its key lending rate at a 23-year high for months now as it looks to return inflation firmly to its long-run goal of two percent.
Tuesday’s data will be closely watched for signs of whether January’s monthly uptick in inflation was a one-off or it proves to be more sustained.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was the only major Wall Street index to gain, rising 0.1 per cent to 38,769.66.
The broad-based S&P 500 fell 0.1 per cent to 5,117.94, while the tech-rich Nasdaq lost 0.4 per cent to finish at 16,019.27.
“The market’s a little anxious ahead of the February report, because it wants to be able to see that basically, the January surprise was not repeatable,” Patrick O’Hare from Briefing.com told AFP.
He added that Tuesday’s inflation data could move markets, “because it’s going to help shape the market’s thinking about what the Fed might do with monetary policy.”
Among individual firms, Facebook’s parent company Meta fell 4.4 per cent amid Monday’s Nasdaq slump.
And pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly dropped 3.6 per cent, a few days after the US Food and Drug Administration announced it was delaying a decision on an anti-Alzheimer’s drug. AFP
