Wall Street falls on anti-inflation comments from the Fed

The S&P 500 fell on Monday as investors weighed comments from Federal Reserve officials regarding the central bank’s approach to monetary policy.

The fed governor Christopher Wallera voting member of the committee that sets interest rates this year, said on Sunday that markets should now pay attention to the “endpoint” of rate hikes, not the pace of each move, and that the endpoint is likely “in far”.

The comments follow a report from weaker inflation than expected last week in the United States, which had raised hopes that the Fed could pare back its steep interest rate hikes and that helped fuel a strong market rally.

Meanwhile, the vice president of the FedThe Fed, Lael Brainard, said the Fed is likely to cut its interest rate hikes soon as the central bank tries to determine how high borrowing costs need to be and how long they need to stay there to bring inflation down.

The S&P 500 it lost 35.68 points, or 0.89%, to finish at 3,957.25 points. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite it gave up 127.11 points, or 1.12%, to 11,196.22 units. The Dow Jones Industrial Average it fell 211.16 points, or 0.63%, to 33,536.07 units.

In the previous session, the S&P 500 It posted its biggest weekly percentage gain in about five months, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq posted its best week since March.

In the coming week, the focus will be on a slew of economic data, including retail sales numbers on Wednesday, as well as speeches by various Fed officials for more clues on the interest rate outlook.

Operators now expect the Fed raise rates in December by half a point, and expect a terminal rate in the 4.75%-5.0% range next year.

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