NEW YORK, July 17 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks declined for the week, pressured by a continued rise in U.S. inflation readings.
For the week ending Friday, the Dow lost 0.5 percent, while the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 1 percent and 1.9 percent, respectively.
The S&P U.S. Listed China 50 index, which is designed to track the performance of the 50 largest Chinese companies listed on U.S. exchanges by total market cap, logged a weekly decrease of 1.2 percent.
A hotter-than-expected report on U.S. inflation became a focus on Wall Street this week.
U.S. Department of Labor said on Tuesday that the consumer price index (CPI), a gauge of inflation, increased by 0.9 percent in June, exceeding the 0.5 percent advance forecast by economists. The figure also represented the biggest increase since 2008. The annualized rise in inflation was 5.4 percent in June.
"Another huge month for inflation numbers, another month where excluding this and that makes it look transitory, and another month where the Fed's patience will be tested," Chris Low and Will Compernolle, economists at FHN Financial, said in a note on Tuesday.
"Members of the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) who already think it's time to slow things down by setting a taper timeline could find new ammunition in this report," they said.
It seemed that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's latest comments failed to ease market concerns over rising inflation.
According to his Semiannual Monetary Policy Testimony before the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday, Powell still saw inflation as transitory, and expected it to moderate in the coming months as the temporary base effects "drop out of the 12-month calculation."
The Fed chief noted that the labor market, although improving, "is still a long way to go" toward recovering from the pandemic.
Powell also said that the U.S. economy is "still a ways off" from the progress that the Fed wants to see before tapering the central bank's asset purchases.
"Essentially, he gave a very dovish testimony which was in line with the recent FOMC minutes," said Kevin Matras, executive vice president at Zacks Investment Research.
The Fed has pledged to keep its benchmark interest rates unchanged at the record-low level of near zero, while continuing its asset purchase program at least at the current pace of 120 billion U.S. dollars per month until the economic recovery makes "substantial further progress."
Other newly-released data also made investors to reassess the shape of economic recovery.
The University of Michigan on Friday said its preliminary consumer sentiment index fell to 80.8 in July from a final reading of 85.5 in June, marking the lowest level since February. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had expected a reading of 86.3.
U.S. retail and food services sales rose 0.6 percent in June, following a downwardly revised 1.7-percent drop in May, the Department of Commerce reported on Friday. The June reading topped market estimates.
U.S. initial jobless claims, a rough way to measure layoffs, decreased by 26,000 to 360,000 in the week ending July 10, marking a fresh pandemic-era low, the Department of Labor reported on Thursday.
"High U.S. inflation readings seem to be the only economic indicator making headlines these days," and "when inflation rises, uncertainties also rise - creating challenges for investors trying to build their retirement portfolio," analysts at Zacks Investment Management said in a note on Saturday.
"Staying on the hot topic of inflation, it is also important to note that not all inflation is created equal," they said. Enditem
