Stocks, futures fall as fed rate-hike bets harden
BNN Bloomberg
US equity futures fell along with stocks in Europe and the dollar resumed its upward march Thursday after high US inflation hardened expectations for more aggressive monetary tightening.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index declined more than 1 per cent, dragged down by the telecom sector, where Ericsson AB plunged more than 10 per cent after missing analysts’ quarterly profit estimates. Real-estate stocks slumped after Swedish property company Samhallsbyggnadsbolaget i Norden AB unexpectedly posted a loss, sending the shares down 15 per cent.
S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 contracts retreated more than 1 per cent each ahead of the US second-quarter earnings season, kicked off on Thursday by JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley. An Asian share index dropped for the third time in four days as China’s developer rout spread to the banking sector.
Traders have shifted toward expectations of an historic one percentage-point Fed interest-rate hike later this month after the US consumer-price gauge clocked a 9.1 per cent annual climb. Fed Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic said “everything is in play” to combat price pressures.
