ROUNDUP/Equities New York: Dow continues to slide – fear of China lockdowns

NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – Wall Street continued its steep downward movement from Friday at the beginning of the new week. On the other hand, there was a gentle recovery on the Nasdaq technology exchange. The leading Dow Jones Industrial Index (Dow Jones 30 Industrial) fell 0.99 percent in early trading on Monday to 33,476.52 points after falling around 2.7 percent on Friday. The market-wide S&P 500 lost 0.88 percent on Monday to 4234.01 points. The tech-heavy NASDAQ 100 rose 0.25 percent to 13,389.76 points.

Since the end of the week, increased interest rate fears have weighed on investor sentiment. In particular, statements by US Federal Reserve President Jerome Powell about a major interest rate hike at the next Fed meeting in early May caused the previously good market mood to tip over.

In addition, there was concern on Monday about the effects of the Chinese corona policy on the global economy. After the discovery of a few dozen infections in Beijing, all 3.5 million residents of the largest district, Chaoyang, have to be tested in three rounds every two days. The fear of strict curfews in the Chinese capital caused hamster purchases and empty supermarket shelves.

From an industry perspective, oil stocks came under the most selling pressure after oil prices fell significantly. Concerns about weaker demand due to the strict corona measures in China are increasingly dominating the crude market. The economic metropolis of Shanghai is already entering the fourth week of a tough lockdown. Accordingly, Chevron was the weakest Dow value with minus 3.3 percent. ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips fell 5.3 percent and 5.6 percent, respectively.

Among the individual values, the shares of Coca-Cola were the focus of investors. In the first quarter, the soft drinks manufacturer generated significantly more revenue than analysts had expected. Operating margin improved 2.3 percentage points to 32.5 percent. The share certificates increased by 0.5 percent.

Twitter shares gained 3.1 percent. According to US media reports, the Internet communication platform is more receptive to the takeover bid by tech billionaire Elon Musk after initial resistance. The “Wall Street Journal” wrote this Monday that both sides are in serious negotiations and could come to an agreement this week. According to the Bloomberg news agency, an agreement could even be reached this Monday. Tesla shares fell 0.4 percent./edh/he

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