US Stocks end softer ahead of Fed meet

The US stock market finished session lower on Friday, 09 December 2022, after spending most of the session bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line, as data on U.S. producer prices raised conflicting views about the Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes.

Market participants were awating for next week's highly-anticipated Federal Reserve meeting. While Fed policymakers are expected to raise rates by 50 basis points next Wednesday at their last meeting of the year, to a range of 4.25% to 4.50%, which would mark a slower pace of rate increases, traders have recently expressed concerns about how much further the Fed will need to raise rates in order to contain inflation.

At the close of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index was down 305.02 points, or 0.9%, to 33,476.46. The S&P500 index decreased by 29.13 points, or 0.73%, to 3,934.38. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index declined by 77.39 points, or 0.7%, to 11,004.62. For the week, the Dow lost 2.78%, the S&P 500 3.38% and the Nasdaq 3.99%.

Total 10 of 11 sectors of the S&P500 index declined, with energy sector was worst performer, erasing 2.33%, followed by healthcare (down 1.28%) and materials (down 0.96%). Communication service sector outperformed, gaining 0.02%.

ECONOMIC NEWS: The Labor Department said its producer price index for final demand rose by 0.3% in November and increased 7.4% in the 12 months through November, while the PPI for October was revised up to 0.3% from 0.2% as previously reported.

Separately, report from the University of Michigan showed one-year inflation expectations fell to a fifteen-month low of 4.6% in December from 4.9% in November, although five-year inflation expectations held at 3%.

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