S P 500 Ends Lower After Fed Minutes

Minutes: The Fed “generally agreed” to a monthly outflow of $ 95 billion Technology sector, growth shares sink, utilities win

April 6 (Reuters) – The S&P 500 (.SPX) benchmark fell on Wednesday, with sharp falls in tech stocks and other growth stocks as minutes from the Federal Reserve meeting in March sharpened investors’ focus on its plans. US Federal Reserve to Fight Inflation. Fed officials “generally agreed” last month to cut $ 60 billion a month from its holdings at the bank’s Treasury and $ 35 billion from its holdings in mortgage-backed securities, with the proceeds more than three months “or moderately more”, according to March 15. -16 minutes of policy meeting. read more Major Wall Street stocks were steadily lower before the release of the minutes, after falling a day earlier when Fed Governor Lael Brainard’s comments raised concerns about more aggressive Fed action to fight inflation. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register “The Fed is determined to curb inflation and we are just hoping and praying that there will be a mild economic downturn rather than a hard downturn,” said Tim Ghriskey, a senior portfolio analyst at Ingalls. & Snyder. According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 (.SPX) lost 44.80 points, or 0.99%, to close at 4,480.32 points, while the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) lost 316.41 points or 2, 23%, at 13,887.75 points. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) fell 145.47 points or 0.42%, to 34,495.71. The decline is due to technology (.SPLRCT) and other growth shares. The utility sector (.SPLRCU) won. Wall Street indicators had already fallen sharply for the second day in a row, as Brainard comments on Tuesday sparked fears of aggressive action by the central bank. Brainard said she expected a combination of interest rate hikes and a rapidly evolving balance sheet to bring U.S. monetary policy to a “more neutral position” later this year. read more “He is one of the most aggressive members of the FOMC and so to come out so aggressive in eliminating inflationary pressures with really more aggressive tightening of interest rates and policies, I think that took a bit off the market and I think you see that going on today,” he said. Anthony Saglimbene, Strategic Global Market Analyst at Ameriprise. The prospect of a more aggressive Fed has led to a difficult start to the year for stocks, especially technology and growth stocks, whose valuations are more vulnerable to higher bond yields. The crisis in Ukraine has raised concerns, especially about worsening inflation as commodity prices soar. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register References by Lewis Krauskopf in New York, Noel Randewich in San Francisco, Bansari Mayur Kamdar and Praveen Paramasivam in Bengaluru. Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila, Shounak Dasgupta and Richard Chang Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.