By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com -- The Dow snapped a four-day winning streak Wednesday, after giving up intraday gains as investors weighed the Federal Reserve’s minutes flagging recession concerns and data showing cooling inflation.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1%, or 38 points, giving up a more than 200-point intraday gain. The Nasdaq fell 0.9% and the S&P 500 slipped 0.4%.
The minutes of the Fed’s March meeting showed that members were now forecasting a “mild recession” later this year in the wake of the banking crisis and showed that members were close to pausing rate hikes in March.
“Banking-sector developments moved the Fed staff's projections to a mild recession starting later this year, and real GDP growth remaining below potential through 2024,” Morgan Stanley said and kept its expectations for a 0.25% rate hike in May unchanged.
The Fed minutes arrived just hours after the data showing inflation pressures were cooling, with many economists noting the slower rise in shelter cost, which makes up a large chunk of core inflation as a positive development.
“[T]his morning’s cooler-than-expected monthly rise will reinforce the argument the Fed can take a pause, while the Committee assesses the full impact of earlier policy metrics on the broader economy and price pressures,” Stifel said in a note.
Concerns about the recession and the impact on the consumer forced consumer stocks lower, with travel and leisure as well as retail stocks leading to the downside.
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NYSE:NCLH), Carnival Corporation (NYSE:CCL), and Caesars Entertainment Corporation (NASDAQ:CZR) were among the biggest losses in the consumer sector, with Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) also weighing on the sector.
Tesla is reportedly eyeing another price cut Model Y and Model 3 vehicles in China, with the latter's price expected to be cut by about 14.8%, according to media reports.
Energy stocks, meanwhile, ended just above the flatline as oil prices jumped even as data showed an expected rise in U.S. weekly crude inventories.
U.S. crude stockpiles rose 597,000 barrels in the week through Apr. 7, confounding expectations for a draw of 3.7 million.