Stock market news: Swings between gains, losses after worst day in 8 months

Traders
work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after
the opening bell in New York
Thomson
Reuters

Wall Street opened below key levels Thursday but found some
relief from tamer-than-expected inflation data, a day after
worries about rising rates and trade tensions sparked a sharp
sell-off in global markets.

After suffering its steepest drop since February in the previous
session, the Dow
Jones industrial average was up 0.2% shortly after the US
open. The
Nasdaq Composite edged up 0.5% following its worst day
since the Brexit referendum. The
S&P 500 was largely unchanged, on track to add to
its longest losing streak since the 2016 election.

An anxiously-awaited
inflation reading came in below expectations during
premarket trading. The consumer price index rose 0.1% in
September, according to the Labor
Department, compared with forecasts for up 0.2%. Government
data out a day earlier showed the producer price index rebounded
to a seasonally adjusted 0.2% after two months of declines. 

Treasury yields retreated from multiyear highs following the
inflation data and as investors flocked to the relative safety of
US government bonds. As the economy hums along, the Federal
Reserve is expected to continue tightening after increasing rates
three times this year and eight times since the financial crisis.

“The #MAGA theme is unraveling a bit over the past few sessions
as two-sided risks have been injected into the US equity market,”
Mark McCormick, head of North American FX strategy at TD
Securities, wrote in an email. “The marked selloff in rates is
the clear catalyst, though that reflects the slow-burning theme
of the end of easy money.”

The Cboe Volatility Index, a
measure of expected volatility on the S&P 500, fell as much
as 5% to 21.07 but held close to
its highest level since February. Also known as Wall Street’s
“fear index,” the VIX tends to rise when investors are anxious
and stocks are down.