Dow tumbles 267 points as investors mull disappointing housing data and rising inflation

Dow tumbles 267 points as investors mull disappointing housing data and rising inflation

US stocks closed lower Tuesday as investors mulled disappointing housing data and rising inflation. to an annualized rate of 1.57 million units, the said Tuesday, well below the median estimate of a 1.7 million pace from economists surveyed by Bloomberg. March's huge upswing was revised slightly lower to a rate of 1.73 million. This month's reading erases much of the and suggests contractors' efforts to shore up supply are hitting snags. "Strong demand, a need for inventory, and homebuilder optimism will support housing starts over the rest of 2021, while record-high lumber prices and supply chain bottlenecks may act as headwinds," Nancy Vanden Houten, lead US economist at Oxford Economics, . As for increasing inflation, it mostly reflects the supply-demand imbalances related to economic reopening so far, Lauren Goodwin, economist and portfolio Strategist at New York Life Investments, said in a statement. As long as this is the case, the Federal Reserve, she said, will be hesitant to change its course. "If inflation expectations rise and stay above the Fed's inflation goals, the potential for an earlier policy rate liftoff would rise," Goodwin said. "For this to happen, we would likely see higher margins driven by reopening, sustaining those higher