[ad_1]
By Ankika Biswas and Devik Jain
Sept 23 (Reuters) – Wall Street’s main indexes fell on Friday as investors fretted over the prospect of an economic downturn and a hit to corporate earnings from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s aggressive policy tightening moves to quell inflation.
The Dow .DJI breached its mid-June lows on an intraday basis to touch 29,643.93 points and hit a near-two year low.
The S&P 500 .SPX and the Nasdaq .IXIC are also closing in on mid-June lows, their weakest points for the year.
Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are already in bear market and down more than 22% and 30%, respectively, so far this year, amid worries about a host of issues including the Ukraine conflict and tightening financial conditions across the globe.
The U.S. central bank raised rates by a widely expected 75 basis points on Wednesday and signaled a longer trajectory for policy rates, dashing hopes that the Fed expects to get inflation under control in the near term.
“The most recent Fed actions leave us with the feeling that the end of the rate rises is not near,” said Rick Meckler, a partner at Cherry Lane Investments in New Vernon, New Jersey.
“There is very little positive news right now and it could lead to a sort of a final selloff … it’s certainly possible that we could be approaching the near-term lows.”
Dire outlooks from a handful of companies – most recently FedEx Corp FDX.N and Ford Motor Co F.N – have also added to woes in a seasonally weak period for markets.
Goldman Sachs cut its year-end 2022 target for the benchmark S&P 500 index .SPX by about 16% to 3,600 points, a 2.5% decline from current levels.
At 10:08 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was down 408.50 points, or 1.36%, at 29,668.18, the S&P 500 .SPX was down 65.07 points, or 1.73%, at 3,692.92, and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was down 220.27 points, or 1.99%, at 10,846.54.
All the three indexes were set for sharp weekly losses.
Technology and growth stocks slid with megacap names including Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O, Apple Inc AAPL.O, Amazon.com AMZN.O, Microsoft Corp MSFT.O and Tesla Inc TSLA.O all down more than 1%.
All the 11 major S&P sectors declined in early trading, led by a 5.6% drop in energy .SPNY shares. Banks .SPXBK fell 1.6%.
Costco Wholesale Corp COST.O shed 2.4% after the big-box retailer reported a fall in its fourth-quarter profit margins.
The CBOE volatility index .VIX, also known as Wall Street’s fear gauge, rose to 28.72 points.
Meanwhile, Fed Chair Jerome Powell is set to give opening remarks on the transition to a post-pandemic economy at an event at 2 p.m. ET.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 11.33-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 6.67-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded no new 52-week high and 125 new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded seven new highs and 558 new lows.
(Reporting by Ankika Biswas and Devik Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
((Ankika.Biswas@thomsonreuters.com))
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
[ad_2]
Source link
