US Stocks Fall Again, Dow Goes Negative For Year

Faizan Hashmi Published November 20, 2018 | 11:05 PM

Wall Street stocks fell sharply in early trading on Tuesday, extending their slump on weakness in technology and retailer shares and plunging major indices back into the red for 2018.

New York, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Nov, 2018 ) :Wall Street stocks fell sharply in early trading on Tuesday, extending their slump on weakness in technology and retailer shares and plunging major indices back into the red for 2018.

About 20 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.8 percent at 24,567.20 or about 150 points below its year-end level last December.

The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 1.5 percent to 2,649.32, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index shed 1.9 percent to 6,895.08.

Semiconductors have been an especially weak group, with Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices and Micron Technology all down significantly.

But the pullback has also featured hefty drops in large technology Names such as Apple, Amazon and microsoft, all of which were down two percent or more.

"These stocks are widely owned and they have 'always worked,' which means they have left a lot of owners taken aback by their technical breakdown and the lack of any buy-the-dip assertiveness that has sustained them time and again in this bull market," said Briefing.

com analyst Patrick O'Hare.

"The weakness in those former leadership names (well, they are still leadership stocks, only now they are leading to the downside) is one knock on this market." Key factors in the rising market skittishness include worries about higher Federal Reserve interest rates, the US-China trade conflict and new political uncertainty following the loss by President Donald Trump's Republican party of control of the lower house of Congress.

Weakness among retailer shares was another feature of Tuesday's session, with Target shedding 7.8 percent, Lowe's 3.2 percent and L Brands 14.9 percent following earnings releases.

On the flip slide, electronics retailer Best Buy advanced 3.0 percent after reporting results.