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April 14 (UPI) — U.S. markets closed a holiday-shortened week of trading in the red Thursday amid mixed earnings results form major banks and rising inflation.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the day down 113.36 points, or 0.33%, while the S&P 500 dropped 1.21% and the Nasdaq Composite tumbled 2.14% to end the week as markets will be closed on Friday.
The Dow ended the week flat at minus 0.38%, while the S&P 500 fell 2.39% and the Nasdaq Composite closed down 3.93%.
Markets reversed gains from Wednesday as investors digested earnings reports from major banks.
Shares of Morgan Stanley rose 0.75% after posting better-than-expected earnings, while Goldman Sachs dropped 0.1% despite beating earnings expectations and Wells Fargo stock fell 4.57% after missing earnings expectations.
The benchmark 10-year treasury yield climbed 13 basis points above 2.8% returning to multi-year highs after receding some on Wednesday.
“There’s a lot of fear and anticipation as we’re moving into this period of higher interest rates,” Portia Capital Management owner and President Michelle Connell told Yahoo Finance. “We’re just not quite sure how much the Fed’s going to dial those up. There’s a lot of uncertainty.”
Tech stocks slumped amid the rising yields and inflation fears as Apple stock fell 3%, Microsoft dropped 2.71% and Google parent Alphabet slid 2.44%. Chip stocks were also on the decline with AMD dropping 4.79% and Nvidia falling 4.26%.
Shares of Twitter fell 1.68% as billionaire Elon Musk announced he made an offer to buy the social media company outright and transform it into a private company.
U.S. retail sales rose 0.5% in the month of March, led by rising gas prices, and were up 7% year over year, the Labor Department reported.
The Labor Department’s weekly unemployment report also showed that first-time filings increased by 18,000 to 185,000 but remain near a 54-year low set last week.
