Ticker: Wall Street recoils after good news on the economy raises inflation worries
U.S. stocks dropped on worries that good news on the job market may prove to be bad for Wall Street by keeping inflation and interest rates high. The S&P 500 fell 1.5% Friday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.6%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 1.6%. Stocks took their cue from the bond market, where yields rose to crank up the pressure after a report said U.S. employers hired many more workers last month than economists expected. The strong data could keep upward pressure on inflation and prevent the Federal Reserve from delivering cuts to interest rates.
The LA county wildfires could be the costliest in US history, early estimates say
The wildfires that erupted this week across Los Angeles County are far from contained, but they’re already expected to be the costliest in U.S. history and among the worst natural disasters. The devastating blazes have killed at least 11 people and incinerated more than 12,000 structures since Tuesday.
While California is no stranger to major wildfires, they have generally been concentrated in inland areas that are not densely populated. That’s far from the case this time, with one of the largest conflagrations destroying thousands of properties across the Pacific Palisades and Malibu, home to many Hollywood stars and executives with multimillion-dollar properties.
A preliminary estimate by AccuWeather put the damage and economic losses so far between $135 billion and $150 billion.
“This will be the costliest wildfire in California modern history and also very likely the costliest wildfire in U.S. modern history, because of the fires occurring in the densely populated areas around Los Angeles with some of the highest-valued real estate in the country,” said Jonathan Porter, the private firm’s chief meteorologist.