Wall Street fell a second day after two other US Federal Reserve officials suggested the central bank could begin easing its bond-buying program next month.
In late afternoon trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 0.62 per cent, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 0.59 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.78 per cent. Shares of International Business Machines, down 2.5 per cent, Hewlett-Packard, down 2.1 per cent, and United Technologies, down 1.4 per cent, led the decline in the Dow.
A day after Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher suggested the central bank should begin easing its bond-buying program in September "unless we see some disturbing data," both Chicago Fed President Charles Evans and Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart separately said the bank might start tapering as early as next month.
Evans, who has been among the strongest proponents of record monetary accommodation, said today at a meeting with reporters in Chicago that he "would clearly not rule" out a decision to begin dialling back the purchases in September, according to Bloomberg News.
Separately, Lockhart told Market News International that while a move to ease back on monetary stimulus could come in September, the move could come at any time before the end of the year, the Wall Street Journal reported.