
U.S. stock index indexes fell Thursday, as investors weighed up surging U.S. consumer price inflation, and a hawkish tilt from the European Central Bank and stalled Russia-Ukraine negotiations.
U.S. February consumer prices rose to 7.9%, a 40-year high, with some seeing more inflation to come due to the Russia-Ukraine war. In other data, weekly U.S. jobless benefit claims edged up 11,000 to 227,000.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-1.00%
fell 342 points, or 1%, to around 32,931; the S&P 500 index
SPX,
-1.10%
declined 1% to 4,232, while the Nasdaq Composite Index
COMP,
-1.52%
slumped 1.5% to 13,056.