By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com — On Thursday the Dow fell as investors abandoned the growth sector of the market in anticipation of the release of an inflation report on Friday. This will affect the Federal Reserve’s plans for tightening its monetary policy.

It fell 1.9% or 638 points. The was also down 2.8% and 2.4%.

Growth stocks continue to pile on the pressure, led by Netflix (NASDAQ:) and Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:), with the latter enduring a downbeat start to life under its new ticker “META.”

Rising Treasury yields continue to cast doubt on growth areas of the market including big tech as investors await inflation data due Friday that will filter into the Fed’s thinking about the path of rate hikes.

“They need more data…the CPI for June and for July will help the Fed get real clarity as to what’s going to happen with inflation,” Robert Conzo, CEO of The Wealth Alliance told Investing.com in an interview on Thursday. 

Economists anticipate that inflation will increase by about 0.7% in May. This is more than 0.3% in April. But price pressure, at 8.3%, should stay flat over the next 12 months. 

If the CPI continues to tick down and inflation starts to quell…then they [the Fed]Conzo stated that we should delay any future interest rate increases. The trajectory of inflation and how quickly it falls will determine if there is a chance for a recession.

Stitch Fix CNBC reported that the retailer was planning to lay off 15% of its staff, and cited an internal memo.

Tesla (NASDAQ: ) fell after UBS elevated the stock to neutral and cited attractive valuations.  

Five Below (NASDAQ 🙂 has cut its losses to about 1% today after cutting full year guidance. This was in response to mixed results on the topline.

Also, financials fell as a result of a decrease in banks and worries about a weaker economy continuing to flatten yield curve. This tends to reduce net interest margins, which limits banks’ profit from lending, and also impacts the profitability.

Capital One Financial (NYSE:), Wells Fargo Bank of America Corp and (NYSE 🙂 fell more than 3%.