NEW YORK: Wall Street's main indexes fell on Thursday as the spread of the Covid-19 Delta variant cast doubts over an economic recovery, while a rout in Chinese tech stocks appeared to have spilled across markets. Investors globally turned wary of risk. Equities fell and bond prices rallied on worries about Beijing's crackdown on foreign-listed Chinese firms and a sustained global economic recovery.

The S&P 500 banks fell 1.0%, tracking a fall in the 10-year Treasury yield to 1.25%. The FAANG group, whose value rests heavily on future earnings, dropped between 0.7% and 1.3%. It had sent the Nasdaq and S&P 500 to record highs in the previous session.

Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Global Inc, which has been at the center of a selloff after its app was taken down by Beijing, fell 5.6%. Other US-listed Chinese stocks fell, tracking steep losses in China and Hong Kong, with e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd falling 3.7% and internet search engine Baidu Inc down 3.9%.

At 12:08 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 219.31 points, or 0.63%, at 34,462.48, the S&P 500 was down 33.39 points, or 0.77%, at 4,324.74 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 121.64 points, or 0.83%, at 14,543.42.