A currency trader walks near screens showing the Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (KOSDAQ), left bottom, and the foreign exchange rates at a bank’s foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, May 17, 2021. Asian stock markets were mixed Monday after Taiwan and Singapore tightened anti-coronavirus restrictions and Wall Street turned in its biggest weekly decline in three months.
A currency trader watches computer monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at a bank’s foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, May 17, 2021. Asian stock markets were mixed Monday after Taiwan and Singapore tightened anti-coronavirus restrictions and Wall Street turned in its biggest weekly decline in three months.
A currency trader watches computer monitors near screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a bank’s foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, May 17, 2021. Asian stock markets were mixed Monday after Taiwan and Singapore tightened anti-coronavirus restrictions and Wall Street turned in its biggest weekly decline in three months.
A currency trader stands near screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a bank’s foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, May 17, 2021. Asian stock markets were mixed Monday after Taiwan and Singapore tightened anti-coronavirus restrictions and Wall Street turned in its biggest weekly decline in three months.
FILE – The New York Stock Exchange is seen in New York, Monday, Nov. 23, 2020. Stocks are off to a mostly lower start on Wall Street as the market comes off its worst weekly decline since February. The S&P 500 was off 0.1% in the early going Monday, May 17, 2021.
U.S. stocks are slipping in Monday afternoon trading to tack more losses onto last week’s stumble, as worries about inflation continue to dog Wall Street.
Tech stocks once again were taking the brunt of the losses, and they helped pull the S&P 500 down by 0.5%, as of 2:20 p.m. Eastern time. The benchmark index is coming off a 1.4% weekly drop from its record high, which would have been even worse if not for a rebound in the back half of last week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 97 points lower, or 0.3%, at 34,284. The Nasdaq composite, which is full of tech-oriented stocks, was down 0.9%, more than other indexes.
The majority of stocks across the market were falling, but gains for energy companies and producers of raw materials were helping to limit the losses. They’re the latest back-and-forth eddies for a market swept up in worries about whether the rising inflation seen recently across the economy will prove to be only temporary or longer lasting.
If it’s the latter, the fear is that the Federal Reserve will dial back the extensive support it’s providing to markets, including record-low interest rates and the monthly purchase of $120 billion in bonds.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury has shot higher this year amid the inflation fears. It was at 1.64% in afternoon trading, up slightly from 1.63% at the end of last week. It began the year close to 0.90%.
About the Author
