US stocks end lower on fears about growth
Wall Street stocks ended in the red on Friday on worries over global growth prospects, and with analysts noting a sense that the market is due for a pullback after an earlier run. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.7 percent lower at 33,727.43, while the broad-based S&P 500 slid 0.8 percent to 4,348.33. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index fell 1.0 percent to 13,492.52. "Hawkish central banks talk" continues to weigh on markets, said Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital. There was mixed macroeconomic news this week, he said, but investors' focus remained on Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell and the Bank of England, which further tightened monetary policy. While there have been hopes that the Fed was nearing the end of its cycle of interest rate hikes, this has given way to concern that the US central bank still plans several more increases to rein in inflation. Other central banks around the world have also lifted rates, adding to recession concerns. Among individual organizations, Goldman Sachs shares fell 1.5 percent after a news report saying that it could face a large writedown for a 2021 acquisition of fintech firm GreenSky. Shares of CarMax ended 10.2 percent higher after reporting better-than-expected results. (AFP)