US stocks closed lower on Friday after a speech by Chairman Kevin Warsh helped strengthen faith that the Fed will do what's needed to bring inflation down, even if it causes pain for the economy in the short term.

The S&P 500 fell 19.23 points, or 0.3 percent, to 7,711.76. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 9.45 points, or 0.02 percent, to 53,559.99, and the Nasdaq composite sank 138.93 points, or 0.5 percent, to 26,402.42.

The reaction was stronger in the bond market following Warsh’s first speech as chairman of the Fed at an annual economic symposium held in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Warsh said "short-term interest rates are the predominant tool" for the Fed to do its job. And he said: "I would be hard pressed to describe broad financial conditions as restrictive," an implication that short-term interest rates may not be high enough to tamp down the economy and inflation.

The yield on the two-year Treasury, which closely tracks expectations for what the Fed will do with its federal funds rate, jumped to 4.35 percent from 4.22 percent just before the speech.

All the moves, including the modest ones for stocks even though higher interest rates tend to hurt them, indicate investors “pricing a more credible Fed,” according to economists at Bank of America led by Aditya Bhave.

“The positive market reaction highlights that investors place a premium on policy clarity, even when that clarity carries” a message implying higher interest rates, according to Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management. (AP)



Edited by Robert Kemp