NEW YORK, Aug 10 — The Nasdaq closed down yesterday after a dismal forecast from Micron Technology pulled chip makers and tech stocks lower as investors await US inflation data that could lead the Federal Reserve to further tighten its efforts to curb inflation.
Unit labour costs — the price of labour per single unit of output — rose at a 10.8 per cent rate, following a 12.7 per cent rate of growth in the first quarter, the Labour Department said. “We’re going to see central banks being surprised by inflation. They will have to sound hawkish on the back of this,” Boivin told the Reuters Global Markets Forum.
The jobs data from last Friday eroded some of the bullish arguments that the Fed would “pivot” to a neutral policy stance, followed by rate cuts early next year, Chang said.