NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks slumped to start Wednesday with all three major US indices in the red and key names such as Facebook parent Meta Platforms and Nvidia falling.
Around 10 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 0.4 percent to 37,571.60, while the broad-based S&P 500 Index lost 0.5 percent to 4,718.88.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index retreated 0.6 percent to 14,670.94.
Wall St kicks off 2024 on low note
“It’s kind of a pullback across markets. You’re seeing a little bearish correction in bonds and upward correction in the dollar. And of course, some weakness in equities,” said Karl Haeling of LBBW.
“The markets probably just got themselves a little bit too extended at year-end. So I think you just needed a technical correction to begin with,” he added.
The retreat comes after a strong 2023, which saw optimism over artificial intelligence bringing outsize gains for the “Magnificent Seven” stocks: Amazon, Apple, Google parent Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla.
But several of these names showed weakness to start the second day of the new year, with Meta shares slipping 0.4 percent, Nvidia falling 0.7 percent and Alphabet losing 0.3 percent early on Wednesday.
Later in the day, traders will be eyeing data released on the US manufacturing sector and minutes from the recent Fed policy meeting in December.
“At the time, the market loved hearing Fed Chair Powell suggest there was some talk at the meeting about when it might be appropriate to lessen the policy restraint,” said Patrick O’Hare of Briefing.com in a note.
“Market participants will want to see today just how involved that conversation was,” he added.
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