U.S. stocks open sharply lower, Dow drops more than 500 points after hotter-than-expected inflation report

U.S. stocks opened sharply lower Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling more than 500 points, after the consumer-price index showed that inflation in September was hotter than forecast. The Dow DJIA, +2.31% was down 1.7% soon after the opening bell, while the S&P 500 SPX, +2.22% fell about 2.2% and the Nasdaq Composite COMP, +2.09% dropped around 3%, according to FactSet data, at last check. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said Thursday that inflation measured by the consumer-price index rose 0.4% last month for an annual rate of 8.2%. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had expected a 0.3% rise. Core CPI, which excludes energy and food prices, climbed a sharp 0.6% in September, above the 0.4% increase anticipated by economists, to a new peak of 6.6% over the past 12 months.