Dow Jones Drops 500 Points After Strong US Inflation Report

U.S. stocks fell sharply on Wednesday after federal inflation data for March was hotter than previously anticipated. The Dow Jones dropped by more than 500 points by 12 p.m. EST, in part driven by declines in shares of Home Depot and Intel. The benchmark S&P 500 Index also lost about 1 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped the same amount. Home Depot was down by more than $10, or 2.8 percent, and Intel was down about $1, or 2.6 percent, as of Wednesday morning. Boeing BA, Goldman Sachs, and Cisco also contributed to the Dow’s Wednesday decline It came as U.S. consumer prices picked up again in March, increasing by 3.5 percentage points for the month, according to the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Wednesday. That’s up from February’s CPI of 3.2 percent, and some analysts noted that March’s figures show it’s the highest annual inflation gain in six months....