US stocks closed lower in yesterday's trading after a significant increase last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.67%, the broad S&P 500 index went down 0.41% and the technology-heavy NASDAQ Composite index fell by 0.41%.
Overall, the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 indexes remained unchanged over the past month. However, the NASDAQ Composite index lost about 2%.
One of the major reasons for investors' concern is possible further tightening of the US monetary policy. US President Joe Biden is worried about rising inflation. He met with Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to discuss the problem. According to the Federal Reserve, the regulator plans to keep raising interest rates at every meeting until the prices decline. However, this information has not been confirmed yet. Moreover, extremely rapid tightening may lead to economic recession.
The commodity sector has also slowed its growth as some oil-exporting countries have proposed suspending Russia's participation in the OPEC+ production deal. Experts believe a decline in oil and gas prices should have a positive impact on stock markets. However, there is some uncertainty in the market amid recent news. At the same time, the cost of energy resources directly affects purchasing power.
Over the past month, US consumer confidence has declined due to a steady rise in inflation. This indicator fell to 106.4 points compared to April's figure of 108.6 points. At the same time, experts predicted a drop to 103.9 points. The data exceeded analysts' expectations. Therefore, the situation is stable.
US home prices rose in March. Investors expect unemployment data to be released this week.
Coca-Cola Co., Honeywell International Inc., Johnson & Johnson as well as Boeing Co. and 3M Co. showed losses in the value of shares among the components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. They fell by 2%, 1.4%, 0.86%, 0.6% and 0.15% respectively.
Shares of Zoom Video Communications dropped by 2.7%, even though analysts upgraded their performance significantly.
China's stocks traded on US exchanges gained. Therefore, shares of Alibaba rose by 2.8%, JD.com Inc. advanced 4.6% and NIO added almost 5%.
