Losses at Wall weighed down by geopolitical tensions

With a negative sign, the main Wall Street indices start trading on Tuesday, extending yesterday’s losses, with geopolitical tensions coming back to the fore shortly before the visit of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, which China considers a Chinese province.

Pelosi is the highest-ranking elected US government official to visit the island in 25 years. The speaker of the House of Representatives heads a special congressional mission to the Indo-Pacific region, with visits to Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan.

However, Beijing has warned the US of “severe consequences” should Pelosi visit Taiwan as well.

“The United States and Taiwan are working together and making provocations, while China is obliged to take action to protect its interests,” a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman told reporters today.

Indicators – Statistics

On the board, the Dow Jones lost 270.28 points, or -0.83%, to 32,519.05, while the S&P 500 fell 20.59 points, or -0.50%, to 4,098.79. The tech Nasdaq lost 29.50 points, or -0.24%, to 12,340.64.

Of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones industrial index, only six move with a positive sign and 24 with a negative sign. Amgen was the biggest gainer with gains of $1.09 or 0.44% to $246.73, followed by Cisco Systems at $45.38 with an increase of 0.22% and Merck with gains of 0.19 % to $88.70

The biggest losers are Caterpillar (-4.34%), Visa (-2.73%) and Boeing (-2.57%).

The bearish two days follows a strong rally in July, with indices recovering from June lows, sliding into a bear market after the Federal Reserve’s first aggressive rate hikes to tackle the highest inflation in 40 years.

The Fed’s aggressive policy-tightening strategy has fueled concerns about the risk of the economy slipping into recession, with investors hoping the central bank will then slow rate hikes to avoid that risk.

Investors meanwhile continue to watch quarterly results announcements with Uber Technologies, Caterpillar, JetBlue Airways, Pinterest standing out today.

Source: Capital

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