NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks
ended slightly lower on Thursday after the president of the Federal
Reserve Bank of St. Louis said interest-rate increases should come
sooner rather than later.
Six
of the 10 S&P 500 sectors were in negative territory. The S&P
financial index (.SPSY) slipped 0.3 percent and ranked among those
leading the market's decline.
St.
Louis Fed President James Bullard, in an interview with Fox Business
Network, reiterated his belief that raising rates by the end of the
first quarter of 2015 would be appropriate.
He
said the U.S. jobless rate will fall below 6 percent and inflation
looks likely to rise back to 2 percent later this year, putting the
economy closer to normal than most realize. Bullard is a non-voting
member of the Federal Open Markets Committee, the Fed's policy-making
panel.
The Fed had hinted
after its meeting this month about a slightly faster pace of
interest-rate increases starting next year, but suggested rates in the
long run would be lower than it had indicated previously.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment