Wall St drops over weak consumer confidence

Wall Street indexes sharply dropped on Tuesday as weak consumer confidence data deepened concerns over slowing U.S. economic growth, with the Nasdaq down more than 2% as a surge in Treasury yields pressured mega-cap technology stocks.

At 10:38 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 361.68 points, or 1.04%, at 34,507.69, the S&P 500 was down 64.66 points, or 1.46%, at 4,378.45, and the Nasdaq Composite was down 321.51 points, or 2.15%, at 14,648.46.

U.S. consumer confidence unexpectedly fell to its lowest since February this month, as soaring COVID-19 infections intensified concerns about the economy’s near-term prospects.

The reading, coupled with a rising trade deficit and an expected decline in vehicle sales, brewed fresh concerns about the state of consumption in the country, which is a key driver of economic growth.

“What looks like slowing down of economic growth, yet the increase in the 10-year yield – that’s causing investors to say maybe we should be getting out of tech,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research in New York.

An investor sits in front of a board showing stock information at a brokerage office in Beijing, China, December 7, 2018. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo

“Consumers continue to be worried by supply disruptions, the threat of higher inflation as well as the Delta variant, what kind of an impact that will have on their life and the economy.”

Fed Chair Jerome Powell had also flagged concerns over prolonged difficulties in a post-COVID economic reopening, and in a hearing before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee said that even with the eventual tapering of stimulus, monetary policy would likely remain accommodative until mid-2022.

The two-year U.S. Treasury yield surged to 18-month highs, weighing on shares of high-growth companies whose values are closely linked to future earnings.

Shares of Apple, Microsoft Corp, Amazon.com Inc and Google-parent Alphabet Inc dropped between 1.1% and 3.5%.

These stocks have benefited from the low-interest rate environment since the start of the pandemic.

Progress on U.S government funding negotiations was also in focus after a sharply divided U.S. Senate failed on Monday to advance a measure to suspend the federal debt ceiling and avoid a partial government shutdown ahead of a Sept. 30 deadline.

Among other stocks, Ford Motor Co rose 1.2% after the U.S. automaker and its Korean battery partner SK Innovation said they would invest $11.4 billion to build an electric F-150 assembly plant and three battery plants in the United States.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 4.34-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and for a 5.06-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 16 new 52-week highs and four new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 32 new highs and 69 new lows.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar, Medha Singh and Devik Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu, Sriraj Kalluvila and Maju Samuel)