Markets Drop More Than 2% During Rough Week
On both Monday and Tuesday, the markets saw light trading while the Consumer Price Index showed consumer prices increased 0.2% in February. The core CPI, which excludes energy and food, ticked up 0.2%, twice what economists were expecting. Midweek investors showed their concern over the rising dollar. On Friday, Commerce Department data showed the third and final fourth-quarter GDP reading remained at 2.2%, though shy of an expected uptick to 2.4%. The final University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index registered a reading of 93, well above the preliminary 91.2, but down from February’s 95.4 reading.