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Investing.com — U.S. stocks wobbled after a stronger-than-expected report on November producer prices renewed fears about the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes.
At 10:42 ET (15:42 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 42 points or 0.1%, while the S&P 500 was flat and the NASDAQ Composite was up 0.1%.
The Labor Department said producer prices rose 7.4% last month on an annual basis compared with economists’ expectations of 7.2%. The pace did slow from October’s 8% gain. Core producer prices, which exclude food and energy, rose 6.2%. Wall Street expected a gain of 5.9%.
The numbers stoked fears that the Fed would keep rates higher for longer, following on a stronger-than-expected November jobs report and a strong services sector report. The Fed next meets on Tuesday for two days, and will release the decision on rates on Wednesday. Wall Street is expecting it to raise its benchmark rate by a half-percentage point.
The Fed raised the rate by 75 basis points for each of its last four rate decisions.
University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment reading for December was stronger than expected, too, coming in at 59.1 and beating the 56.9 expected.
Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ:AVGO) shares rose 3.1% after the chipmaker forecast higher-than-expected revenue for the current quarter. Lululemon Athletica Inc (NASDAQ:LULU) stock fell 12% after the athletic apparel maker gave a gloomier-than-expected outlook for holiday quarter results.
Oil was rising. Crude Oil WTI Futures were up 1.4% to $72.46 a barrel, while Brent Oil Futures were up 1% to $76.91 a barrel and Gold Futures were up 0.3% to $1806.
