U.S. stock indices — what’s going on in the stock market? Wall Street closed lower on the background of the statistical data that showed that the US economy is resilient despite the Federal Reserve tightening its monetary policy. This raises fears that the U.S. Central Bank will continue to raise interest rates to fight inflation, writes CNBC.

American stock indexes — key factors

The number of Americans who applied for unemployment benefits for the first time last week fell by 1,000 to 194,000, according to a report from the U.S. Labor Department. According to revised data, a week earlier, the figure was 195,000, not 196,000, as previously reported. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, on average, predicted an increase in the number of applications to 200 thousand.

Meanwhile, PPI producer prices in the US rose 0.7% month-on-month in January, the highest in seven months. In annual terms, the growth was 6%. Analysts polled by Trading Economics forecast on average a 0.4% growth for the former index and a 5.4% growth for the latter.

The number of homes under construction in the U.S. in January fell 4.5 percent from the previous month to 1.309 million at an annualized rate, according to the nation’s Commerce Department. According to revised data, the number of new buildings in December was 1.371 million, not 1.382 million as previously announced. Experts had forecast a decline to 1.36 million, according to Trading Economics.

Philadelphia’s manufacturing activity index fell to minus 24.3 points in February from minus 8.9 points a month earlier. The February reading was the lowest since May 2020. Experts had expected the indicator, which is calculated by the Philadelphia Fed, to rise to minus 7.4 points. A negative value of the index indicates a weakening of activity in the region’s manufacturing sector, while a positive value indicates a strengthening.

Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland (FRB) President Loretta Mester said she thought it was premature to conclude that U.S. inflation was on a steady path toward the U.S. Central Bank’s 2% target. Although inflation has slowed somewhat since last summer, it is still too high, Mester said during an event at the University of South Florida on Thursday. Last week’s January Consumer Price Report showed that core inflation is slowing a little, she said.

St. Louis Fed Chairman James Ballard said during a speech in Tennessee that he called for a sharper rate hike at the last Fed meeting and did not rule out a sweeping move further down the road.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average index was down 431.20 points (1.26%) at 33696.85 by Thursday’s close.
• Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 57.19 points (1.38%) to 4,090.41 points.
• The Nasdaq Composite lost 214.76 points (1.78%) to 11855.83 points.

Earlier we reported that all the US stock markets finished trades in different directions.