S&P 500 at 6-Month Low : Stocks Slide at Open on Wall Street

In the first few minutes of trade, the benchmark index has dropped 1.5 percent, whilst Nasdaq Composite has dropped 1.7 percent, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is below 1%.

Stocks are falling on Wall Street at the outset on Monday, continuing a recent series of losses that have pushed the S&P 500 to 6-month lows.

In the first few minutes of trade, the benchmark index has dropped 1.5 percent, whilst Nasdaq Composite is down 1.7 percent, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has dropped 1%.

The energy, as well as raw materials industries, are at the forefront of the downward trend. Freeport McMoRan, a mining company, is down 4.6 percent, while General Motors is down nearly 4%.

Investors are becoming increasingly concerned about how aggressively the Federal Reserve will react to rising inflation this week’s policy meeting.

Asian and European stocks were lower since the 2020 outbreak. In London, Paris, and Frankfurt, stocks fell; however, they soared in Tokyo. Shanghai had not changed much.

As the economy was hit hard by the outbreak in 2020 and then recovered over the preceding two years, low-interest record rates, known as quantitative easing, or QE, have helped support the broader market.

“With an ending to QE and forthcoming rate hikes expected to be announced, the FOMC (Fed) meeting dominating the macro calendar this week as well as it is likely to continue risk sentiment on the reluctant side.

Certain analysts say the Fed and certain other central banks ought to increase rates quickly rather than later to slow the rise in prices. By December, consumer prices within the United States increased by 7% over the previous year, the largest increase in about four decades.

Due to consistent pressure on consumers’ wallets, concerns that rising costs may cause them to cut back on their spending have arisen. At the same time, breakouts of the omicron version of the coronavirus threaten recovery from the crisis.