NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is plunging in early trading, pressured by a sharp Disney slump and mounting fears about American banks. The S&P 500 fell 0.4% early Thursday. The Dow fell 306 points, or 0.9%, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.2%. Disney fell 8% after it said it lost 4 million streaming subscribers over the past quarter. Some banks hit by the industry mini-panic were also under pressure. PacWest fell after revealing a deposit leak last week. Treasury yields fell after a report said inflation at the wholesale level was lower than expected last month.
THIS IS A LAST MINUTE UPDATE. The previous AP story follows below.
Wall Street fell in premarket trading on Thursday ahead of the second release of US government inflation data in two days.
Dow Jones industrial futures fell 0.3%, while the S&P 500 fell less than 0.1% before the bell.
On Wednesday, most of the major US indices ended higher after new data was suggested. inflation in the united states It was getting colder, though it’s still uncomfortably high. A report on wholesale inflation arrives on Thursday, along with weekly jobless claims data.
Traders raised the probability that the Fed will hold rates steady in June to nearly 94%, according to CME Group data.
The Fed has raised rates at a breakneck pace in the hope of reducing inflation. But high rates do that by slowing down the entire economy and hitting investment prices in general. They have already sent share prices down, caused turmoil in the banking system and dragged down the economy enough that many investors expect a recession this year.
Walt Disney Co. fell more than 5% in after-hours trading after the entertainment giant said it lost 4 million subscribers to its Disney+ streaming service.
The Biden administration is proposing new limits on greenhouse gas emissions from coal and gas power plants, his most ambitious effort yet to cut planet-warming pollution from the nation’s second-biggest contributor to climate change. The announcement did not appear to have a significant effect on the country’s largest power companies.
Inflation in the US still remains well above the Fed’s 2% target and continues to put pressure on households across the economy, particularly those with the lowest incomes.
Most of the S&P 500 companies have beaten earnings forecasts so far in the reporting season, which is nearing its final stretch. But they’re still on track to report an overall drop in profit from a year earlier, which would be the second straight quarter that’s happened.
In addition to concerns about interest rates and inflation, some corners of the bond market are also moving on concerns about the US government. getting closer to a possible default about your debt. That has never happened before, and economists warn that a default could be catastrophic for the economy and financial markets.
At noon in Europe, France’s CAC 40 gained 0.3% while Germany’s DAX was down 0.2%.
Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.4% after the Bank of England on Thursday high interest rates to its highest level since late 2008 as it continues to combat stubbornly high inflation in the UK
In a widely anticipated move, the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee raised its main interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 4.5%. The increase was the twelfth in a row.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index ended little changed, rising just under 0.1% to 29,126.72. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell less than 0.1% to 7,251.90. South Korea’s Kospi sank 0.2% to 2,491.00. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost nearly 0.1% to 19,743.79, while the Shanghai Composite fell 0.3% to 3,309.55.
Concerns about the Chinese economy remain a major focus, especially for the Asian region, with the latest cause for concern coming from trade data released Tuesday. China’s imports contracted at a faster pace, falling 7.9%. Trade with the US and the European Union showed a contraction compared to last year.
“China may be heading for a deflationary funk similar to the one Japan is starting to emerge from,” said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management.
In energy trading, benchmark US crude fell 9 cents to $72.47 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, was down 2 cents at $76.39 a barrel.
In currency trading, the US dollar dipped to 134.23 Japanese yen from 134.28 yen. The euro cost $1.0936, down from $1.0984.
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Kageyama reported from Tokyo; Ott reported from Silver Spring, Maryland.
