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3 Minutes to Read (Reuters) – NEW YORK (Reuters) – On Thursday, stock prices in the United States dipped, while bond prices and the euro rose, as investors reduced risk and sought protection amid a cloudier forecast for the pace of economic recovery. In this illustration photo taken in Bordeaux, France, on March 30, 2016, a man points to a computer screen showing stock information. REUTERS/File Photo/Regis Duvignau By mid-afternoon in U.S. trade, markets had recovered from their more severe early fluctuations, but they remained lower. Concerns about the fallout from Beijing’s crackdown on foreign-listed Chinese companies also weighed on stocks. Investors factored in a lower-for-longer interest rate scenario, dampening concerns that reflating economies would drive rates to climb in the second half of the year. “The reflation trade is stunned, but not dead,” said Jim Vogel, an interest rate strategist at FHN Financial in Memphis, because rates will have to rise at some point. “People have been overly enthusiastic for a long time since the first four months of the year were phenomenal,” he remarked. After months of ignoring certain adverse economic signals, investor optimism about the pace of recovery is waning. Unusual factors, like as those that raised core US inflation numbers last month, may have made inflation and growth appear stronger than they were. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 360.91 points, or 1.04 percent, at 34,320.88 at 1900 GMT. The broad S&P 500 index fell 41.57 points to 4,316.56, or 0.95 percent. The Nasdaq Composite, which is focused on technology, fell 105.30 points, or 0.72 percent, to 14,559.76. The 10-year Treasury note rate dropped 3.5 basis points to 1.286 percent. Earlier in the day, it hit a low of 1.2496 percent. Political tensions in the Middle East, Russia, and China are also causing concern, as they may divert the Biden administration’s attention away from its domestic priorities, such as the infrastructure package. Furthermore, a battle over lifting the US debt ceiling is not far off. Meanwhile, the number of Americans submitting new jobless claims increased on Thursday, indicating that the job market’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic is still shaky. The Federal Reserve of the United States eased fears of impending monetary policy tightening on Wednesday, but reiterated that such discussions might begin next month. In Europe, stocks sank by approximately 1.8 percent. The dollar index, which measures the value of the dollar against a basket of six currencies, fell 0.22 percent to 92.436. At $1.1837, the euro was up 0.41 percent. Gold prices slipped $4.375, or 0.24 percent, to $1,799.03 per ounce on the spot market. Brent crude was recently trading at $74.25 a barrel, up $0.82 or 1.12%. Crude oil in the United States was last trading at $73.07 per barrel, up $0.87, or 1.2 percent. Simon Jessop, Tom Westbrook, Yoruk Bahceli, and Brenna Hughes-Neghaiwi contributed additional reporting, and Kirsten Donovan, Angus MacSwan, Barbara Lewis, William Maclean, and Sonya Hepinstall edited the piece./nRead More

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