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Wall Street stocks trade lower
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Crude oil rebounds after losses
(New throughout, updates with U.S. markets)
By Chibuike Oguh
NEW YORK, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Global equities were lower
while crude oil edged up as traders braced for higher interest
rates after economic data that continues to show the strength of
the U.S. economy and validates the Federal Reserve's tight
monetary policy stance.
A U.S. Labor Department report on Thursday showed that
new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last
week, pointing to a persistently tight labor market.
The readings for the fourth-quarter personal consumption
expenditures (PCE) price index, the Fed's preferred inflation
measure, was revised upward to 3.7%, indicating that inflation
was much stronger than initially thought and helping to drive
bearish sentiments among traders.
Minutes of the Federal Reserve's last meeting released
on Wednesday had showed that officials favored a moderation in
the pace of rate hikes although they indicated that containing
high inflation would be the "key factor" in how much further
rates need to rise.
"The Fed minutes yesterday were a bit hawkish and they said
ongoing rate hikes would be necessary and that should obviously
be negative for the market," said Sandy Villere, portfolio
manager at Villere & Co in New Orleans.
The MSCI world equity index , which tracks
shares in 50 countries, was down 0.42%. European stocks were up at just 0.06%.
On Wall Street, the Nasdaq erased earlier gains from
better-than-expected revenue at chipmaker Nvidia Corp .
The results drove the company's shares up 13%, as well as shares
of other semiconductor manufacturers.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.68% to
32,821.76, the S&P 500 lost 0.46% to 3,972.81 and the
Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.53% to 11,445.78.
"The market is becoming a stock-pickers market where if
companies are putting out good numbers, they're being rewarded
even now that interest rates are going higher," Villere added.
Oil prices firmed more than 1% before paring some gains,
with Russian supply curbs partially offsetting an expected rise
in U.S. inventories.
Brent crude futures rose 1.53%, to $82.83 a
barrel, while West Texas Intermediate crude futures (WTI) advanced 1.49% to $75.05 after six sessions of losses.
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World FX rates YTD Asian stock markets US rate rise expectations have shot back up ECB still in rate-hiking mode to contain inflation ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>
(Additional reporting by Dhara Ranasinghe, editing by Shounak
Dasgupta, Susan Fenton and Anna Driver)
