Rising oil prices and interest rate concerns are weighing on US stock markets

Rising oil prices are once again weighing on the mood on the US stock markets. New interest rate concerns are driving the yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond to its highest level since 2007.

Street sign on New York's Wall Street. Photo: dpa

Dusseldorf. New York. After the tech rally in the last two trading days, all major US indices gave back some of their gains in the middle of the week.

The Dow Jones standard values ​​are 0.6 percent lower at 51,534 points.

The broadly diversified S&P 500 is down 0.6 percent at 7,713 points.

The technology-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.9 percent to 26,990 points.

The Nasdaq 100, a reflection of the 100 non-financial companies with the highest market capitalization, also fell by around one percent to 30,420 points.

The Nasdaq technology exchange index reached a record high yesterday for the second day in a row. Uncertainties in the Iran war and rising oil prices, however, are weighing on the mood on the stock markets on Wednesday.

The mood in tech stocks was also dampened by statements from Fed Director Michael Barr, who expects several interest rate increases. The US Federal Reserve (Fed) raised key interest rates last week for the first time in over three years. Barr said on Wednesday at a regional central bank conference in Chicago: “In my base case, further monetary policy adjustments are likely to be necessary to bring inflation back to target in a timely manner.”

Meanwhile, preliminary figures from S&P Global's manufacturing and services purchasing managers' index fueled inflation concerns. Accordingly, economic activity in September reached its highest level in over five years. However, the data provider noted that this growth was accompanied by serious bottlenecks in supply chains. This suggests that “companies are gaining pricing power, which is a concern for the inflation outlook,” said S&P economist Chris Williamson.