US stocks slide after hot CPI data

Wall Street's main indexes dropped at open on Thursday, with Big Tech leading declines, after hot inflation data put fears around a more aggressive tightening policy by the Federal Reserve back on the table.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 137.25 points, or 0.38%, at the open to 35,630.81.

The S&P 500 opened lower by 33.94 points, or 0.74%, at 4,553.24, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 261.69 points, or 1.81%, to 14,228.68 at the opening bell.


The consumer price index rose 7.5% year over year in January, while the expectation was for an increase of 7.3%.

Bond yields rose on the news. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 1.99%. The yield has been at 2% since August 2019.

European markets moved lower after the US inflation numbers came out. Germany's DAX slipped 0.1% and France's CAC 40 edged down 0.5% after being up earlier.

The Walt Disney Co. gained more than 6.2% in off-hours trading after it reported a rebound in theme-park attendance last quarter and that it added more subscribers to its Disney+ streaming service than analysts expected.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 0.4% to finish at 27,696.08. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.3% to 7,288.50. South Korea's Kospi added 0.1% to 2,771.93.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng edged up 0.4% to 24,924.35, while the Shanghai Composite edged up 0.2% to 3,485.91.

Japan extended measures in Tokyo and some other places to curb outbreaks of the coronavirus for three weeks, until March 6, to try to bring the spread of the omicron variant under control.

The restrictions, mostly requests to restaurants and bars to close early, had been scheduled to end on Sunday.

Also on market players' minds is how Russia has massed over 100,000 troops near Ukraine's border, prompting protests from the US, Europe and other allies.

Western nations say they will impose their toughest-ever sanctions on Russian businesses and individuals if Moscow invades Ukraine.