S&P 500

The equity market declined today with the Dow dropping one point two percent.

We had the S&P weaker by four tenths of one percent.

The Nasdaq Composite was essentially flat.

Crude oil prices retreated today on indications some of the recent supply outages in the Middle East are beginning to resolve.

The increase was expected, but stocks fell by the close today.

The Dow declined more than 1%, and the S&P 500 was down by .4%.

The Federal Reserve is trying to tackle rising inflation in the US that has been fueled, in part, by rising energy prices.

But as Jackson Prosko reports, the conflict in the Middle East that's disrupting the supply of oil is showing no signs of stopping.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average saw the biggest fall as blue chips stocks led losses, falling by 1.2%.

The S&P 500 was down by 0.4% and the Nasdaq Composite was flat.

We circle back now to our top business story for today.

The Federal Reserve hiking interest rates by a quarter percentage point in Chair Kevin Walsh's first major step to combating inflation.

It was a particularly red day, Frankie.

We saw US markets down 1.2%, the Dow was down 1.2%, the S&P was down 0.5%, the Nasdaq... was marginally down basically flat at this point and a lot of this was on the back of some whip sawing due to the federal reserve raising its key interest rate benchmark for the first time in over three years to fight a stubbornly high inflation stemming from soaring crude oil prices during the u.s israeli war on iran in its accompanying statement the fed said its decision was unanimous and more tightening is likely in the near future to affect a timelier drop in

inflation right

this is a Particularly interesting because if you remember reporting around Kevin Walsh's becoming chair of the Fed, there was this narrative that he would follow, toe the line when it comes to what President Donald Trump

The Dow lost 631 points, or 1.2%, to end the day at 51,462.

The S&P 500 dropped half a percent to end at 7,552.

The Nasdaq Composite ended the session almost unchanged at 25,978.

All three indices were higher at one point during the session before the Fed took action and Walsh spoke at a press conference.

I think the two years trading at about 4.7%, 4.75%.

um so we're a little bit above that but we're not crazy high um so there's been you know we're just rising interest rates um you do want to contain inflation you know somebody we're an investor in argentina so you you know if you know you do want to nip inflation in the bud even though that might uh have some short-term impact on on the markets particularly the equity market um so i think that is a small very small price to pay for uh keeping or trying to keep inflation in check

I mean, when you look at the earnings yield on, say, the S&P 500, I think the forward PE is about 24, isn't it? So that makes the earnings yield about 4.2%.

So when you're getting 10-year yields above 5%, it's quite attractive, isn't it, to be in bonds rather than equities at the moment?

We saw the Dow Jones off 1.2%, so a reasonable fall there.

The S&P 500 off 0.45%.

The Nasdaq was broadly flat.

The New Zealand market a little higher today, up 43 points.

How do equity markets actually perform when the US Fed starts to embark on a hiking cycle? There are a lot of doom and gloom headlines out there, so we thought we'd take a look at it, see for each hiking cycle, how did the S&P 500 track over the next four months of that hiking cycle?

Good morning.

It's Thursday.

Let's get to it.

Today's In Focus topic is how equity markets perform when the Fed starts to hike rates, pertinent given the US Fed just raised rates overnight by 25 basis points.

While there can be a lot of doom and gloom associated with the rate move, it's useful to remember that in a mild tightening cycle with just a few rate hikes, the S&P 500, having dipped in the days following, has risen anywhere between 3% to 18% over the next four months.

In an aggressive tightening cycle with large and sizable hikes, the S&P 500 has generally declined 6% over the next four months.

So the key question as investors we have to ask ourselves is whether we are in for a mild tightening cycle of one to four hikes or whether we're in for an aggressive rate hike cycle.

NASDAQ was off three points.

The S&P 500 was down 34.

That Fed rate hike was unanimously voted 12-0 to raise rates to a range of 3.75% to 4%.

This is Fed Chair Kevin Warsh.

The Dow lost 631 points ending the day at 51,462.

NASDAQ fell three points.

The S&P 500 was up by 34.

Coca-Cola says it plans to invest $10 billion in infrastructure in the U.S., one of its biggest markets, in the next five years.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average coming in for a closing loss of 631 points today.

The S&P 500 down 34, and the Nasdaq down three points.

Looks like the Fed raised the overnight Fed funds rate by a quarter percentage point today, and that brings the target range to between 3.25% three and three quarters to four percent, and that was the first hike from the Fed since July of 2023.

The Fed also signaled another rate hike could come later this year.

I hear a lot of people talking about it today on the streets, out and about, and of course at all the big business conferences happening this week and Los Angeles, including the ACGLA conference happening at the Beverly Hilton.

The Dow coming in for a closing loss today of 631 points to 51,461.

The S&P 500 pulling back today by 34 points at 7,551.

And the Nasdaq Composite Ended the day down just three points at $25,978.