Sept. 10 (UPI) — A Wall Street selloff intensified Friday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined for a fifth straight day Friday amid continuing unease about the COVID-19 pandemic and higher inflation.
The index ended 271.9 points lower, wiping out a 200-point rally earlier in the day and finishing the holiday-shortened week off by 2.2% — the second consecutive negative week for the blue-chip average.
The S&P 500 fell by 0.8%, capping its worst one-week performance since February, and the Nasdaq ended Friday 0.9% lower as investors worried about slower growth due to the persistence and virulence of the Delta variant.
President Joe Biden on Thursday announced a sweeping new set of mandates designed to battle widespread vaccine hesitancy, which is being blamed for the economy’s lackluster performance.
The biggest drag on the market Friday was Apple, which fell by more than 3% after a federal judge ruled the tech giant could no longer demand that app developers solely use its Apple Pay purchasing system.
“It’s been a week that’s really taken its cue from the Delta variant,” Cresset Capital Management Partner Jack Ablin told CNBC. “Investors are wringing their hands over growth but are seeing higher inflation at the same time.”
The markets reacted negatively as the Labor Department announced that a key inflation indicator, the producer price index, rose 0.7% in August — higher than the 0.6% Dow Jones estimate.
The PPI was 8.3% higher in a year-over-year basis, marking the biggest annual increase in more than 10 years.
