Stocks fall on Wall Street but cling to weekly gains

By DAMIAN J. TROISE
AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks fell in morning trading on Wall Street Thursday, knocking out some of the gains from a day earlier but keeping the market on track to break a three-week losing streak.

The S&P 500 fell 0.1% as of 9:56 a.m. Eastern. The benchmark index is holding on to a 1.3% gain for the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 58 points, or 0.2%, to 31,493 and the Nasdaq fell 0.1%.

Technology and communications stocks were the biggest weights on the broader market. Intel slipped 1.8% and Netflix fell 2.5%.

Interest rates policies were in sharp focus for investors as the European Central Bank made its largest-ever rate increase, in line with moves from the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks to fight inflation. The bank’s 25-member governing council raised its key benchmark by three-quarters of a percentage point Thursday.

Meanwhile Fed Chair Jerome Powell reaffirmed the Fed’s commitment to keep rates high “until the job is done” in getting inflation under control.

Market focus remains on the highest inflation in decades and the Fed’s attempt to rein it in with high interest rates. The U.S. central bank has already raised rates four times this year and markets expect it to deliver another jumbo-sized increase of three-quarters of a percentage point at its next meeting in two weeks.

Markets in Europe were lower and markets in Asia were mixed. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 surged 2.3%.