NEW YORK – Wall Street stocks finished a volatile session lower on Wednesday after minutes showed that United States Federal Reserve economists in March had projected a “mild recession”.

Equities resumed a downward track following the afternoon disclosure, which shed light on the central bank’s March 22 decision.

“The staff’s projection... included a mild recession starting later this year, with a recovery over the subsequent two years,” according to the minutes.

The minutes suggest that “Fed officials are getting a little more nervous about the outlooks and the overall impact of the current banking turmoil”, said Oanda senior market analyst Edward Moya, who also pointed to nervousness ahead of bank industry earnings later in the week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged down 0.1 per cent to 33,646.50.

The broad-based S&P 500 declined 0.4 per cent to 4,091.95, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.9 per cent to 11,929.34.

Earlier, markets digested US data that showed the rate of inflation year on year fell to 5 per cent in March from 6 per cent in February, the smallest 12-month increase since May 2021.

Despite the positive headline figure, analysts noted that inflation remains well above the Fed’s 2 per cent target and pointed out the report is less impressive when food and energy prices are stripped out.

A note from Oxford Economics said the latest data keeps a Fed interest rate hike “clearly on the table for May”, but increases the odds of a pause in June. AFP