On Monday, US indicators closed the trading session with a decline. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.72%, the S&P 500 was down 0.69% and the NASDAQ Composite dipped 0.64%.
A number of factors contributed to the fall in US indicators. First, investors are concerned about rising oil prices. November WTI crude futures rose 1.5% to $80.52 a barrel and December Brent crude was up to $83.65 a barrel. Oil prices have been boosted by a worldwide gas shortage. In turn, this has benefited oil and gas companies' share prices.
Another reason for traders' concern is the strong rise in inflation combined with low economic growth. Inflation is rising at a higher rate than expected due to supply problems, lack of human resources, and rapidly increasing energy costs. At the same time, the economic recovery has not been as rapid as expected. The Goldman Sachs has changed its GDP growth forecasts for the final quarter of this year due to lower consumer spending and impending cuts in government economic assistance measures.
In addition, corporate reports will be released soon and may clarify how companies are coping with price increases. Indicators of expected income will show how top corporate executives assess the future growth and increase in consumer spending. Delta Air Lines, Domino's Pizza, Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., The Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and JPMorgan Chase will release their reports as early as this week.
Experts are optimistic because of the significant amount of savings that citizens managed to accumulate during the pandemic, as it is not known how the pandemic will unfold during the winter.
Materials stocks were the best performing sector on the day, underpinned by a 3.2% jump in Freeport-McMoran Copper&Gold Inc as copper prices continued to climb.
Meanwhile, JPMorgan fell 2.1% and Amazon dropped 1.3%. Visa was down 2.2% and Mastercard also fell 2.2% among the biggest drags on the S&P 500. The shares of Southwest Airlines Co. dropped 4.2% as the company canceled a third of its flights.
Analysts expect a 29.6% year-on-year increase in profit for S&P 500 companies in the third quarter, according to experts' forecasts. It should be noted that this indicator doubled in the second quarter.
