- L3Harris slips after $4.7bn takeover of Aerojet
- Fed policy concerns dominate sentiment
- Indices down: Dow 0.85%, S&P 1.19%, Nasdaq 1.64%
Dec 19 (Portal) – Wall Street shares were lower on Monday with Nasdaq leading the declines as investors feared the Federal Reserve’s monetary tightening campaign could push the US economy into recession.
The three major US stock indexes were down for the fourth straight day since Wednesday, with Fed Chair Jerome Powell adopting a more hawkish tone than expected as the central bank hiked interest rates. Powell pledged more hikes even though weak data showed signs of a slowing economy.
The S&P 500 (.SPX), Dow Industrials (.DJI) and Nasdaq all suffered sharp sell-offs in December and are on course for their biggest annual declines since the 2008 financial crisis.
With no major earnings reports or economic data on Monday, investors focused on fears about the economy and interest rates, according to Melissa Brown, global head of applied research at Qontigo in New York.
“It’s a knife edge whether we slide into a recession or have a soft landing. Is the Fed acting appropriately?” said Brown, who also noted that moves may be overblown as many investors take vacations around the year-end holiday.
“Investors haven’t necessarily changed their minds overall, but those that have are currently driving the market and driving larger changes in stock prices due to low trading volume,” she said.
At 2:27 p.m. ET (1927 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) fell 278.55 points or 0.85% to 32,641.91, the S&P 500 (.SPX) lost 45.88 points or 1, 19% to 3,806.48 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) fell 175.96 points or 1.64% to 10,529.45.
The biggest sector declines on the day were Communication Services (.SPLRCL), Technology (.SPLRCT) and Consumer Discretionary (.SPLRCD). The strongest sector was Energy (.SPNY), which was last down 0.4%.
Market heavyweights such as Apple Inc (AAPL.O), Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) and Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) created some of the biggest resistance in the market.
Trading in Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) has been volatile, with the electric carmaker’s stock last down 0.5% after falling as much as 2.8% during the session, following a Twitter poll that showed the majority of respondents wished the resignation of Tesla boss Elon Musk CEO of the social media platform.
Meta Platforms (META.O) slid 3.9% after the European Commission said it could fine up to 10% of the tech conglomerate’s annual global sales if evidence showed it violated EU antitrust laws.
L3Harris Technologies Inc (LHX.N) shed 2.8% after the US defense company announced it would buy hypersonic engine maker Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc (AJRD.N) for $4.7 billion. Aerojet added 1.5%.
Casino operator Melco Resorts & Entertainment’s shares fell more than 9%; Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS.N) falls nearly 2%; and Wynn Resorts (WYNN.O) fell more than 5% after Macau announced on Friday that six casino companies will invest about $15 billion under new 10-year deals they signed to play in the to operate the largest gambling center in the world.
Declining issues predominated on the NYSE at a 3.03 to 1 ratio; on the Nasdaq, a 2.81 to 1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 5 new 52-week highs and 17 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite posted 45 new highs and 393 new lows.
Reporting by Sinéad Carew, Sruthi Shankar, Shubham Batra, Johann M. Cherian and Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Edited by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty, Maju Samuel and David Gregorio
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