Three major indexes of Wall Street closed on Tuesday (May 31, 2022), following a week-long meeting. This is because volatile oil markets kept soaring inflation in focus. Moreover, investors reacted to hawkish comments from a Federal Reserve official.
Reuters, June 1, 2022
The S&P’s energy sector declined after growing in the earlier session. The report revealed that some producers were considering suspending Russia’s participation in the OPEC+ production deal.
Also, investors were concerned about Federal Reserve policy. Joe Biden, U.S. President, and Jerome Powell met on Tuesday (May 31, 2022) to discuss inflation. Biden stated ahead of the meeting that inflation was his top priority.
This came after Christopher Waller, Fed governor, stated on Monday (May 30, 2022). He stated that the U.S. central bank should be prepared to raise interest rates. Importantly, interest should be raised by a half percentage point at each meeting. This interest rate hike has to start from now on until inflation is significantly reduced.
Lower commodity prices would be great news for stocks in the long run. However, the impact of the OPEC+ and Russia report on the energy sector may have frightened the broader market on Tuesday (May 31, 2022).
That’s the kind of thing that makes the market nervous. When we first started out, the sector that was boosting us forward was energy.
Janasiewicz, Portfolio Manager at Natixis Investment Managers Solutions
By the session’s close
- Energy was the biggest loser among the S&P’s 11 major industry sectors by the end of the session. It was down 1.6 percent.
- Consumer discretionary was the only sector that increased by 0.8 percent.
- Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) is the S&P 500’s biggest gainer on the day.
- The communications services sector rose 0.4 percent, with Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) being the S&P’s next largest contributor.
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.67 percent to 32,990.12.
- The S&P 500 dropped 0.63 percent to 4,132.15.
- The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.41 percent, to 12,081.39.
All three indexes rose to end a decades-long losing streak last week.
In short, the data showed that consumer confidence in the United States slightly increased in May, 2022, despite persistently high inflation and rising rates.
Source: Investing
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