Wall Street closed lower amid a rise in bonds and fears about rates

This occurred in a context in which the treasury bond yield The 10-year US dollar neared 4%, in the latest sign that markets are expecting more action from central banks to curb inflation and slow the economy.

The Federal Reserve (FED) walks a fine line in trying to cool demand and prevent the world’s largest economy from going into recession.

Home Depot suffered one of the worst losses in the market after missing Wall Street expectations. It fell 6.3%, even despite the fact that in the last three months of 2022 the results were higher than expected.

Walmart is another company that showed poor results. And both situations respond to fears that the strong rising interest rates and high inflation they are taking their toll on the US economy.

“Walmart is a barometer of the consumer situation and the fact is that they anticipate that the consumer may be getting to the point where they have to back off,” he said. Art HoganChief Market Strategist at B Riley Wealth.

Ten of the top 11 S&P 500 sectors fell and the consumer discretionary index fell 2.1%.

The performance of the 10-year treasury bonds rose, putting pressure on interest rate sensitive growth stocks. Returns have been boosted by positive economic data and hawkish comments from Federal Reserve officials, which have led investors to anticipate higher rates for longer as the bank continues to battle still-high inflation.

For his part, European stocks fell after what strong economic data fueled expectations of interest rate hikeswhile London-listed HSBC rose on higher quarterly earnings.

The continental STOXX 600 index fell 0.2% after economic data from France and Germany put economic activity back into growth territory, while good figures for services in the euro zone indicated that the recovery in business activity had gained momentum.

He technological indexsensitive to interest rates, fell 1.5%, while euro zone short-term bond yields rose to their highest levels in more than a decade.