The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the broadest US equity barometer on the New York Stock Exchange, closed at 34,577, down 23.34 points or 0.1 percent.
The S&P 500, which groups the top 500 stocks on the New York Stock Exchange, closed at 4,193, down 15 points or 0.4 percent.
The Nasdaq Composite index, which includes high-flying tech stocks such as Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Netflix and Google, closed at 13,615, down 142 points or 1.0 percent. Nasdaq has been Wall Street’s biggest loser of late, sliding 1 percent since the start of June after finishing May down 1.5 percent, for its first monthly loss since November.
The US economy grew by an annualized rate of 6.4 percent in the first quarter of 2021, after a 3.5 percent contraction for all of 2020 due to shutdowns and other disruptions caused by the pandemic. The Federal Reserve said it expects a 6.5 percent growth this year.
However, the prices of almost all commodities and services have increased as reflected in the Personal Consumption Expenditure Index, which jumped 3.6 percent in April compared to the same month in 2020. The scenario has alarmed economists into believing that inflation growth in 2021 could be the highest in 35 years.
Thursday’s slide on Wall Street came despite the Labor Department reporting that about 385,000 Americans filed for jobless benefits last week, the lowest number since March of 2020.
