US stocks end day with a loss
NEW YORK, USA – Renewed concerns that central banks will ease off their support for the global economy hit the US stock market yesterday, wiping out its gain for the month.
It looked bad from the start. Indexes began sliding from the opening bell, trailing markets in Asia and Europe, which were rattled when the Bank of Japan decided not to take any new steps to spur growth in the world’s third-largest economy.
The news out of Japan added to questions surrounding global central banks, investors said. US markets have been shaken by speculation that the Federal Reserve will start curtailing its own bond-buying programme in the coming months.
“There’s just a lot of uncertainty,” said Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at the brokerage BTIG in New York. “People are worried about the Fed. They’re worried about a spike in interest rates. And then Japan says it’s finished for now.”
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 116.57 points to 15,122.02. That’s a decline of 0.8 per cent. It fell as much as 152 points in the first hour of trading, climbed back by midday and then sank in the afternoon.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 16.68 points to close at 1,626.13, a loss of one per cent. All 10 industry groups in the index dropped, led by banks and energy companies. The S&P is now down 0.3 per cent for the month.
The S&P 500 index has lost 2.6 per cent since setting a record high on May 21. The next day, minutes from a Fed meeting suggested the central bank could decide to scale back its stimulus as early as June if the economy picks up.
Sprint Nextel gained 17 cents, or 2.4 per cent, to US$7.35 after Japan’s Softbank raised its offer for the company. Softbank’s total bid for the country’s third-largest
phone carrier is now valued at US$21.6 billion, still short of the US$25.5 billion offered by Dish Network.
Overseas, the Bank of Japan voted on Tuesday to stick to its current bond-buying programme, disappointing those who had expected the bank to widen its effort. Japan’s Nikkei stock index lost 1.5 per cent.
Major stock markets in Europe also slumped. Germany’s DAX dropped 1 per cent and France’s CAC-40 lost 1.4 per cent.
The world’s biggest central banks have bought trillions of dollars worth of bonds in recent years, pressing long-term interest rates down in an attempt to encourage borrowing and spending. In the US, the Fed buys US$85 billion in bonds each month.
With plenty of signs the US economy is improving; many on Wall Street expect the Fed will start cutting back this summer. That’s one reason traders have been selling bonds, pushing the yield on the 10-year note from a low of 1.63 per cent last month to 2.18 per cent on Tuesday.
Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank in Chicago, said it’s only natural that investors feel a little nervous after such a sharp rise in long-term interest rates. For starters, they’re just not used to it. Many investors have grown used to seeing rates head steadily lower over the past 30 years.
“It’s an adjustment period,” Ablin said. “You want a stronger economy, OK, but that’s coming with higher interest rates. Most people in the business have never encountered that.”