Dec. 14 (UPI) — U.S. markets fell Tuesday as investors reacted to inflation data showing a sharp rise in prices.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 106.77 points, or 0.3%, the S&P 500 dropped 0.75% and the Nasdaq Composite closed the day down 1.14% as tech stocks fell broadly.
The rise came as investors expect the Federal Reserve to ramp up tapering its pandemic bond purchasing program, with Fed Chairman Jerome Powell set to deliver remarks on the central bank’s final monetary policy statement for 2021 on Wednesday.
“We don’t believe he’s spooked, where he will have to move too fast,” People’s United Advisors Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer John Traynor told Yahoo Finance. “We’ll need to wait and see what kind of language comes out, but a quickening of the pace is certainly in the cards, and it’s certainly justified, but moving too fast and then moving too fast to raise rates would really upset the market.”
Tech stocks helped to lead the decline as Adobe fell 6.6% and Microsoft dropped 3.26%.
Ford stock fell 1.86% after Toyota announced it would invest $35 billion into battery-powered electronic vehicles, threatening the U.S. automaker’s hold on the market. Tesla stock also dropped 0.82% as CEO Elon Musk announced he sold another $906.5 million in shares.
Prominent “meme stocks” GameStop and AMC also fell 7.9% and 5.42% respectively.
