THURSDAY – Stocks rose slightly Thursday as the market tried to recover from back-to-back losing sessions, while traders digested the Federal Reserve’s plans to tighten monetary policy.
The Fed on Wednesday released the minutes from its March meeting, which showed that officials planed to reduce their trillions in bond holdings with a consensus amount around $95 billion. Meanwhile, policymakers indicated that one or more 50 basis-point interest rate hikes could be warranted to battle surging inflation.
Officials “generally agreed” that a maximum of $60 billion in Treasuries and $35 billion in mortgage-backed securities would be allowed to roll off, phased in over three months and likely starting in May.
The news sent the blue-chip Dow down more than 100 points Wednesday, while the S&P 500 slid 1%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped another 2.2%, bringing its week-to-date losses to 2.6%. Those losses came after comments from Fed Governor Lael Brainard pushed stock prices lower on Tuesday.
Investors await the weekly jobless claims data Thursday morning, which is expected to show a total of 200,000 claims filed.
Crude prices ticked higher after falling in the previous session. U.S. oil gained 0.7% to $96.94 per barrel, while international Brent advanced 0.9% to $101.95.
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