The stock market fell Thursday and oil prices fell as a key inflation rate ticked higher and President Joe Biden announced he will release some U.S. oil reserves.
The Nasdaq composite and the S&P 500 dropped 0.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.4%. Volume fell on the Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange compared with Wednesday's volume. The small-cap Russell 2000 was unchanged.
The inflation rate most closely watched by the Federal Reserve showed that price pressures accelerated to a new 40-year high, but prices excluding food and energy were a bit tamer than expected. The stock market barely reacted to the mixed personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, with S&P 500 futures up a fraction.
U.S. Stock Market Today Overview |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Index | Symbol | Price | Gain/Loss | % Change |
| Dow Jones | (0DJIA) | 35100.21 | -128.60 | -0.37 |
| S&P 500 | (0S&P5) | 4593.29 | -9.16 | -0.20 |
| Nasdaq | (0NDQC ) | 14408.50 | -33.78 | -0.23 |
| Russell 2000 | 207.41 | -0.05 | -0.02 | |
| IBD 50 | 39.70 | +0.25 | +0.63 | |
Last Update: 11:52 AM ET 3/31/2022 |
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The PCE price index rose 0.6%, the biggest monthly gain since 2008. The annual inflation rate rose to 6.4%, highest since January 1982. Core prices, minus food and energy, rose 0.4% on the month. The annual core inflation rate picked up to 5.4%, the most since April 1983.
The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 2.34%, extending Wednesday's losses.
Some Oil Stocks Gain On Biden Announcement
Among Dow Jones stocks, Walgreens Boots Alliance reported better-than-expected earnings ahead of the market open, sending WBA shares down 5%.
The Deerfield, Ill., drugstore chain posted net income attributable to Walgreens of $883 million, compared with $1.03 billion a year earlier. Earnings from continuing operations were $1.02 a share, compared with $1.06 in the year-ago period. Adjusted for one-time items, earnings were $1.59 a share. Analysts surveyed by FactSet were looking for adjusted earnings of $1.37.
Vertex Gains On Clinical Trials
Vertex Pharmaceuticals moved higher in its buy range Thursday morning, rising 0.9% after the company released Phase 2 trial data for an experimental pain drug. The 5% buy area above a 255.03 cup-base entry tops out at 267.78.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals announced promising test results for its opioid alternative on Thursday. The biotech tested its pain drug in patients following bunion removal and abdominoplasty, a procedural commonly referred to as a tummy tuck. In both studies, a high dose of Vertex's drug, dubbed VX-548, led to greater pain relief than a placebo and a standard treatment regimen.
In spite of the market losses, the Innovator IBD 50 ETF was up 0.6%. Shockwave Medical was one of the leading stocks, up 4.5%.
Outside of the Dow Jones 30, chip leader Advanced Micro Devices declined more than 5% after Barclays downgraded the stock from overweight to equal weight. EV giant Tesla recovered from earlier losses, gaining 0.1% Thursday.
In other economic news, initial jobless claims rose by 14,000 to a seasonally adjusted 202,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. The report indicated a strong labor market and was up from the previous week of 188,000 jobless claims.
Follow Michael Molinski on Twitter @IMmolinski
