(MENAFN– ecpulse)
U.S. stock markets retreated on Monday, backing-off all-time highs as investors speculated whether the Federal Reserve would increase interest rates sooner than thought and as earnings season is about to kickoff.
Economists believe that the outstanding performance o the job market could complicate the Federal Reserve’s plans.
Thursday’s non-farm payrolls numbers signaled that the job market could find maximum employment sooner than thought, which could prompt Fed policy makers to start thinking about hiking interest rates.
Goldman Sachs Group moved up its projected timing for the Fed to raise interest rates, forecasting the central bank would increase its benchmark rate in the third quarter of 2015 instead of the first three months of 2016.
The Fed on Wednesday is scheduled to release the minutes from its June policy session.
-The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.26% or 44.05 points to 17024.21
-The S&P 500 Index fell 0.39% or 7.79 points to 1977.65
-The NASDAQ Composite Index fell 0.77% or 34.39 points to 4454.53
On Thursday, U.S. stocks rose, lifting the Dow industrials above 17,000, after the government reported the economy created a better-than-expected 288,000 jobs in June and the unemployment rate fell to 6.1 percent.
The dollar held steady against the currencies of major U.S. trading partners and the yield on the 10-year Treasury note used to figure mortgage rates and other consumer loans fell 2 basis points to 2.617 percent.
On Tuesday, Alcoa releases second-quarter earnings, with Wells Fargo following three days later.
Many Dow components will be among the dozens of large companies slated to release earnings next week.
GT Advanced Technologies declined after UBS downgraded the provider of electronics technology to neutral from buy and Canaccord Genuity Group cut the stock to hold from buy.
Archer Daniels Midland climbed after the agribusiness company said it would buy Wild Flavors, a Swiss natural flavors company.
Delta Air Lines dropped after joining other carriers in reducing service to Venezuela
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