Financial Markets                      10/14 15:38

   

   NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. stocks dropped to their worst day since July on 
Wednesday following the latest signal that inflation is getting worse.
The S&P 500 sank 1.1% for a fifth loss in the six days since setting its 
all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 48 points, or 0.1%, and 
the Nasdaq composite slid 1.9% as stocks in the artificial-intelligence 
industry led the way lower.
Stocks felt pressure from rising yields in the bond market, where worries grew 
after a report said U.S. consumers had to pay prices for fuel, food and other 
costs of living last month that were 3.7% higher overall than a year earlier. 
That means inflation accelerated from its 3.4% rate in August and was worse 
than the 3.6% that economists expected.
Inflation has remained more painful than anyone would like since the economy 
catapulted out of the crevasse created by the COVID-19 pandemic. It's 
accelerated recently in part because of jumps in fuel prices caused by the war 
with Iran, and the price for a barrel of Brent crude added 0.4% Wednesday to 
$106.06.
That has added to the longstanding worries about fast-rising debt loads for 
governments, signals that the U.S. economy is still growing and other factors 
that have sent bond yields to their highest levels in years.
The centerpiece of the U.S. bond market, the 10-year Treasury, saw its yield 
briefly jump above 5.32% from less than 5.17% just before the inflation 
report's release. It eventually gave back much of the gain.
Yields on shorter-term Treasurys had even bigger leaps as traders raised their 
expectations for coming hikes to interest rates by the Federal Reserve, though 
they also moderated as the day progressed.
The Fed recently raised the interest rate that it controls, which affects very 
short-term loans, for the first time in three years in hopes of reining in 
inflation. Higher rates do that by making it more expensive for everyone to 
borrow money and slowing the overall economy.
Traders now see a nearly 35% chance the Fed will raise the federal funds rate 
at its next meeting in two weeks, up from the 22% probability seen a day 
earlier, according to data from CME Group.
Part of what's keeping inflation high is that Americans overall are continuing 
to spend, which encourages businesses to keep raising prices for their products 
and services. As Americans become more "price-sensitive" and the economy also 
benefits from greater productivity by workers, Vanguard Senior Economist Adam 
Schickling said inflation should slow, but "patience will be required."
Much of Wall Street's pain on Wednesday was due to drops for companies riding 
the AI frenzy to huge profit growth and stellar stock gains.
Higher bond yields making borrowing money more expensive could make it more 
difficult for companies to raise cash to build data centers and fill them with 
AI chips. Drops of 3.2% for Nvidia, 3.1% for Broadcom and 5.7% for Advanced 
Micro Devices were among the day's heaviest weights on the S&P 500.
CoreWeave, which offers AI computing power to customers over the cloud, tumbled 
15.5% for its worst day since February. GE Vernova, which is hoping to 
electrify power-hungry data centers, dropped 6.2%, and Oracle sank 8.8%.
Smaller companies also feel the bite of higher interest rates because many need 
to borrow to grow. The Russell 2000 index of the smallest U.S. stocks fell 1.9%.
Higher yields in the bond market push downward on prices for all kinds of 
stocks, and the main way companies can offset that is by delivering bigger 
profits. That's exactly what analysts are expecting, and it's how the S&P 500 
has been able to set records despite the many challenges weighing on Wall 
Street.
But the high expectations also mean companies will likely get punished if they 
fall short of targets for growth.
Bank of America dropped 4.8% after reporting weaker profit and revenue for the 
summer than analysts expected. The profit would have failed to meet 
expectations even if the U.S. Treasury Department had not announced $1.2 
billion in fines late Tuesday for alleged violations of anti-money laundering 
and sanctions laws by the bank.
State Street sank 4.1% after reporting weaker revenue for the latest quarter 
than analysts expected, even though its profit was slightly above their 
forecasts.
All told, the S&P 500 fell 86.51 points to 7,718.94. The Dow Jones Industrial 
Average dipped 48.62 to 51,621.48, and the Nasdaq composite sank 511.51 to 
26,692.87.
In stock markets abroad, indexes ticked higher in Europe following a weaker 
finish in Asia. They rose 0.7% in London and fell 0.9% in Shanghai for two of 
the world's bigger moves.
___
An earlier version of this story was corrected to say the S&P 500 was on track 
for its worst day since July, not June.
___
AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Michelle Chapman contributed to this 
report.
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