4:14pm: Market nervousness prevails

Stocks finished lower on Thursday following a higher-than-expected inflation report, adding to concerns ahead of the Federal Reserve's upcoming policy meeting.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both dropped around 0.3% to close at 5,150 and 16,129 points respectively, while the Dow Jones fell approximately 0.4% to finish at 38,906.

Shares of Nvidia and Tesla closed around 4% lower, extending losses from the previous session.

The Russell 2000 Index, representing small-cap stocks, was particularly affected, dropping about 2% as investors adjusted expectations for a potential interest rate cut in June.

2:37pm: Wall Street holding lower as market rethink rate cuts

US stocks are keeping lower on Thursday as the markets react to hotter-than-anticipated inflation readings and what it means for interest rate cuts.

The Dow Jones is down around 128 points (-0.3%), the Nasdaq is more than 18 points lower (-0.1%) and the S&P 500 is down 13 points (-0.2%).

Following the release of the producer price index (PPI) for February, which saw both headline and core figures higher than anticipated, investors have questioned whether this will affect plans for a June rate cut.

Ali Jaffari, finance chief at DHF Capital, said: "Market consensus continues to point to an interest rate cut in June for the moment as attention could turn to the Federal Reserve's policy meeting scheduled for March 19-20".

He noted how the major indices have "stagnated" following the news but believes "the general outlook remains bullish".

Katheen Brooks, research director at XTB, says the market is now expecting the first rate cut to come in July.

"If the Fed err on the cautious side next week, then rate cuts could be pushed back further than this summer," she added.

Nvidia is trading around 3% lower as it continues to suffer a slight slip back from its huge gains since the start of the year.

However, some analysts believe the AI chipmaker's shares will start to pick up next week when it hosts its week-long conference GTC.

Analysts at Wedbush believe the “potential for newsflow” can act as a positive catalyst, while the scale of the event and comments from professionals will highlight how demand "remains robust”.

12:46pm: US stocks tick lower on surprise inflation reading

Wall Street stocks have slipped lower across all three indexes after US inflation data came in worse than expected.

The Dow Jones is down around 78 points at 38,964, while the Nasdaq dropped 34 points to 16,143.

S&P 500 suffered a 12-point drop to around 5,152 points.

It comes as February's producer price index surprisingly reached 0.6%, while core PPI, which strips away volatile food and energy prices, rose by 0.3%.

This was ahead of estimates of a 0.3% rise for the headline figure and 0.2% jump for the core reading.

“The questions now are, will traders rethink how soon the Fed will cuts rates, and will that slow down the stock market rally in any meaningful way?” said Chris Larkin, at E-Trade from Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) (Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)) (Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) (Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS))).

10.43pm Stocks paring losses, Nasdaq positive

The Nasdaq Composite is now lighting up green, just a couple of points higher on the day though, as with Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet and Amazon all move higher.

Meanwhile, the Dow is down 0.1% still and the S&P 500 is almost 0.2% lower.

Nvidia is down 2.3% and Tesla 1.9%, though boss Elon Musk is more focused on his other big project today, SpaceX.

The rocket company's giant Starship vehicle has reached space on its third launch attempt, with the 120-metre tall rocket blasting off just as markets opened further north-east.

Taking off from the company's Boca Raton base on the Texas coast, the upper part of the two-stage vehicle reached orbital velocity and soon after was coasting in space, the company's live-stream showed.

10am: Diving lower after inflation shock

New York's main stock indexes opened higher but not long after the bell were sliding into negative territory as traders chewed over the inflation and retail sales data.

The Dow Jones was quickly down 0.27%, the Nasdaq Composite 0.29% and the S&P 500 fell 0.33%.

Nvidia was a notable faller, down over 2%

8.45am: Wall Street retreat predicted

Stock markets in the US are anticipated to resume their upward progress on Thursday, following the release of new inflation numbers, jobless claims and retail sales figures too.

Dow Jones futures contracts are up 0.3% ahead of the opening bell in New York, with S&P 500 futures rising 0.24% and Nasdaq 100 futures 0.2%.

This will not be with the assistance of Nvidia, which continues to be more volatile than bitcoin, with the shares down 1.7% in pre-market trading, while Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Tesla are trading higher, with Meta Platforms flat.

There was a mixed close across Wall Street last night, with the Dow and Russell 2000 small cap index eking out modest gains, while the S&P and Nasdaq lost ground, thanks to a pull-back in tech.

Nvidia dropped 2.8% and Tesla lost 5.5% after an analyst from Wells Fargo said it was a "growth company with no growth".

US factory gate inflation was shown to be accelerating, according to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The producer prices index increased 0.6% month-on-month and 1.6% year-on-year in February, up from 0.3% MoM and 1.0% YoY the month before.

Both PPI measures were higher than expected, with the consensus forecasts for 0.3% monthly and 1.2% yearly.

US retail sales were up 0.6% on the month, lower than the 0.8% expected. Core retail sales were up 0.3% versus the consensus forecast of 0.5%.

Source: Proactive Investors