US Stocks slide as aggressive Fed views

The US shares stumbled on Thursday, 21 April 2022, dragging the Dow, the S&P500, and the Nasdaq indexes deeply into the sea of red, as investors sentiment soured after the U.S. Federal Reserve hinted at an increasingly aggressive rate hike amid concerns about high inflation.

The Fed chief's views on rate hike and inflation consequently impacted equity markets. The Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that a half-point rate hike will be "on the table" when the central bank meets in May, and it would be appropriate to "be moving a little more quickly."

At the close of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index declined 368.03 points, or 1.05%, to 34,792.76. The S&P500 index was down 65.79 points, or 1.48%, to 4,393.66. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index dropped by 278.41 points, or 2.07%, to 13,174.65.

Declining stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE exchange by 2659 to 657 and 130 closed unchanged. In the NASDAQ, 1074 issues advanced, 3695 issues declined, and 240 issues unchanged.

All 11 major S&P 500 sector indexes closed down, with bottom performing issues were communication services (down 2.4%), information technology (down 1.73%), materials (down 1.68%), and financials (down 1.54%).

Shares of Tesla closed notably sharply higher after the electric car maker reported first quarter results that beat analyst estimates on both the top and bottom lines.

Shares of American Airlines and United Airlines also held on to strong gains after reporting first quarter losses but forecasting a return to profitability in the current quarter.

ECONOMIC NEWS: Labor Department released a report showing initial jobless claims edged down to 184,000, a decrease of 2,000 from the previous week's revised level of 186,000.

Meanwhile, a separate from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia showed growth in Philadelphia-area manufacturing activity slowed more than expected in the month of April. The Philly Fed said its diffusion index for current activity slumped to 17.6 in April from 27.4 in March.

Among Indian ADR, Wipro fell 1.72% to $6.87, HDFC Bank fell 0.73% to $55.44, Dr Reddy's Labs fell 1.85% to $55.72, ICICI Bank declined 0.36% to $19.64, WNS Holdings shed 2.68% to $81.75, and Azure Power Global fell 2.45% to $14.74. Tata Motors added 0.28% to $28.91 and INFOSYS added 0.53% to $20.68.

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