By STAN CHOE, AP Business Writer<\/p>\n
NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Worries about\u00a0worsening inflation<\/a>\u00a0are weighing on the U.S. stock market Wednesday and pulling Wall Street further from\u00a0its record<\/a>.<\/p>\n The S&P 500 fell 0.6% and was on track for a fifth loss in the six days since setting its all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 2 points, or less than 0.1%, as of 10:30 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.9% lower.<\/p>\n Stocks felt pressure from\u00a0rising yields in the bond market<\/a>, where worries grew after a report said U.S. consumers had to pay prices for\u00a0fuel<\/a>, food and other costs of living last month that were 3.7% higher than a year earlier. That means inflation accelerated from its 3.4% rate in August and was worse than the 3.6% that economists expected.<\/p>\n Inflation has remained more painful than anyone would like since the economy launched out of the crevasse created by the COVID-19 pandemic. It\u2019s breathed in new life recently because of jumps in fuel prices caused by\u00a0the war with Iran<\/a>, and the price for a barrel of Brent crude added 0.3% Wednesday to $105.98.<\/p>\n That has built on signals that\u00a0the U.S. economy is still growing<\/a>, longstanding worries about fast-growing\u00a0debt loads for governments<\/a>\u00a0and other factors to send yields to their highest levels in years or even decades in bond markets worldwide.<\/p>\n The centerpiece of the U.S. bond market, the 10-year Treasury, saw its yield jump to 5.26% from less than 5.17% just before the inflation report\u2019s release. That\u2019s a notable move for the bond market.<\/p>\n Yields on shorter-term Treasurys leaped more as traders ratcheted up their expectations for coming hikes to interest rates by the Federal Reserve.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Fed last month raised the interest rate that it controls<\/a>, which affects very short-term loans, for the first time in three years in hopes of reining in inflation. Higher rates do that by making it more expensive for everyone to borrow money and slowing the overall economy.<\/p>\n Traders now see nearly a 44% chance that the Fed will raise the federal funds rate at its next meeting in two weeks, up from the 22% probability seen just a day earlier, according to data from CME Group.<\/p>\n \u201cThe consumer price index was a little hotter than expected, but not scorching hot,\u201d said Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at Annex Wealth Management. \u201cIt was just hot enough to keep traders on edge.\u201d<\/p>\n Higher rates push downward on prices for stocks, and the main way companies can offset that is to deliver bigger profits. That\u2019s exactly what analysts are expecting, and it\u2019s how the S&P 500 has been able to set records despite the many challenges weighing on Wall Street.<\/p>\n BlackRock rose 1.8% after the investment company reported stronger profit and revenue for the summer than analysts expected. Customers poured a net $205 billion into BlackRock\u2019s funds, including iShares exchange-traded funds, from July through September to bring its total assets under management to $15.5 trillion. BlackRock makes money by charging fees on those dollars.<\/p>\n But the high expectations for profit growth also mean companies will likely get punished if they fall short of targets, which is what several other financial companies did Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n Bank of America dropped 7.5% after reporting weaker profit and revenue for the third quarter than analysts expected. The profit would have fallen short even after ignoring the\u00a0$1.2 billion in fines<\/a>\u00a0that the U.S. Treasury Department announced late Tuesday for alleged violations of anti-money laundering and sanctions laws.<\/p>\n State Street sank 8.2% after reporting weaker revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, even though its profit was slightly above their forecasts.<\/p>\n The higher yields in the bond market, meanwhile, hurt some stocks in particular.<\/p>\n