International oil prices plunged more than 3% due to concerns over an economic slowdown when the Federal Reserve, the U.S. central bank, said in the minutes of the last Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting that “interest rates should be raised further.”
On the New York Mercantile Exchange on the 22nd (local time), West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures plunged 3.21% from the previous trading day to USD 73.91 per barrel.
North Sea Brent crude futures, the benchmark for international oil prices, also closed at $90.50 a barrel, down 3.09 percent from the previous trading day.
This is attributed to the Fed’s announcement in the minutes of the FOMC meeting that it will continue to tighten.
“There are signs that inflation is falling, but more interest rate hikes are needed,” the Fed said in its FOMC minutes.
“We need more evidence to be confident that inflation is continuously falling,” the commissioners said. “In particular, the labor market remains very solid, putting continuous upward pressure on wages and prices.”
The main index of the New York Stock Exchange closed mixed on the 22nd (local time) after the release of the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC).
According to CNBC, Market Watch, and the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 33,045.09, down 84.50 points (0.26%) from the previous session.
The S&P 500 Index also closed at 3991.05, down 6.29 points (0.16%) from the previous session.
On the other hand, the Nasdaq Composite Index centered on technology stocks closed at 11,507.07, up 14.77 points (0.13%) from the previous session.
The WSJ analyzed that the minutes “suggested that (interest rates) are likely to rise another 0.25 percentage point at the next (FOMC) meeting on March 21-22.
The minutes were released after James Bullard, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, said earlier in the day that the central bank’s fight against inflation was not over.
