S&P 500 has worst start to year since 2016

The Dow Jones industrial index closed this Friday’s session down 0.01% to 36,231.66 points. On Wednesday it touched a level never reached before, at 36,952.65 points.

The Standard & Poor’s 500, meanwhile, dropped 0.41% to 4,677.03 points. In intraday trading on Tuesday, it reached its highest value ever, at 4,818.62 points.

For its part, the technological Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.96% to settle at 14,935.90 points. On the 22nd of November, it should be remembered, it reached an all-time high of 16,212.23 points.

Labor market data were below expectations, which led to greater caution on the part of investors.

Employment in the US increased less than expected in December, so the increase in hiring may remain moderate in the short term, at a time when new cases of covid-19 disrupt economic activity.

Last month, 199,000 jobs were created (excluding the agricultural sector), the US Department of Labor announced today. It was the lowest monthly job creation in the entire year of 2021. November data were revised upwards, with the number of hires rising to 249,000 and not the 210,000 initially reported.

A The unemployment rate, in turn, dropped to 3.9% in December, against 4.2% in the previous month.

Economists surveyed by Reuters pointed to 400,000 more jobs and a unemployment rate at 4.1%.

Lower-than-expected hiring may be due to labor shortages in some sectors and to anomalies resulting from the so-called seasonal adjustment, used by the government to remove fluctuations of seasonal data, refers to Reuters.

Bad week on Wall Street

Stock markets on the other side The Atlantic also gave ground in the accumulated for the week, with the S&P 500 marking the worst start to the year since 2016, mainly due to fears that the Fed will start raising key interest rates sooner than expected.

Wednesday, there was another sign that the Fed could act more aggressively if inflation remains high, which contributed to additional prudence in markets. Indeed, the minutes of the last meeting of the US Federal Reserve revealed that members of the central bank put the possibility of starting to increase the interest rates earlier than expected and in a more accelerated way. The first increase could be as early as March.

In addition, Fed members were in favor of reducing its balance sheet sooner than expected.

This tightening of the central bank’s monetary policy caused interest rates on debt to skyrocket, which essentially penalized the riskiest listed companies, from technological companies – which trade at high prices – to newly listed companies (which have a limited record of their performance). ).

After marking a closing high on Monday and even reaching an all-time high in the following session, the S&P 500 ended up being penalized by the drop in weight quotes, such as the Tesla, Nvidia and Alphabet (also listed on Nasdaq) ended the week down 1.9%. It hasn’t had such a negative start to the year since 2016.

The Nasdaq has already lost more than 4% in the week, as technology companies were heavily pressured by the rise in sovereign debt interest rates.

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