The S&P 500 lost 4,000 points with a dip of 3.2%, the Nasdaq closed at -4.3%

Key Wall Street indexes fell in free trade on Monday, with the S&P 500 index dropping by 3.2% to the level of 4,000 units for the first time since March 2021, the industrial Dow Jones plunging 2 and the tech Nasdaq plummeting 4.3% as investors look increasingly worried about the Federal Reserve ‘s ability to curb higher inflation over the past 40 years without plunging the economy into recession.

The US Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 50 basis points last week to 0.75% from 1%, with Bank President Jerome Powell trying to calm things down, assuring markets that the Fed is not considering bigger increases. interest rates by 75 basis points that could derail economic growth.

Atlanta Fed Chairman Raphael Bostic made the same statement today in Bloomberg. “For me, 50 basis points is already a pretty aggressive move. I do not think we need to move even more aggressively,” Bostic said in an interview with the agency.

However, the Fed’s statements do not seem to allay concerns about the risk of recession or stagflation as the US economy not only has to deal with successive interest rate hikes, but also China’s slowdown amid massive lockdowns, the war in Ukraine and disruptions in global supply chains.

Indicators – Statistics

On the board, the Dow Jones lost 653.67 points or -1.99% and closed at 32,245.70 points, while the broader S&P 500 fell 132.10 points or -3.20% to 3,991.24 points. The technology Nasdaq fell 521.41 points or -4.29% to 11,623.25 points.

The negative protagonist was today the energy sector with the S&P 500 Energy losing more than 8% against the background of dip in oil prices.

Of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones industrial average, seven closed with a positive sign and 23 with a negative one. The biggest gain was recorded by 3M with gains of $ 2.85 or 1.91% at $ 152.38, followed by Walmart with $ 151.31 with gains of 1.17% and Amgen with gains of 1.13% at $ 239.17

On the other hand, the three stocks with the biggest losses were Boeing (-10.47%), Chevron (-6.70%) and Visa (-4.84%).

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the broader S&P 500 closed last week with small losses of 0.2%, while the technology Nasdaq fell 1.5%. The weekly losses came after wild fluctuations for the indices, with the Dow losing more than 1,000 points on Thursday, in the worst session of the last five years, after jumping 900 points on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the upward trend in bond yields continues to put pressure on the indices. The yield in the 10-year US is losing 10 basis points close to 3.03%, although earlier it exceeded 3.2% after closing last week at the highest level since November 2018.

The climate was aggravated today by the worrying data from China. Government figures released today show that exports rose 3.7% year-on-year in April, slowing significantly from the previous month when they jumped 15.7%. Imports, meanwhile, rose just 0.7%, reflecting weak demand.

In business developments, US-based biotechnology company BioNTech announced that first-quarter earnings more than tripled to 3.7 billion euros or 14.24 euros per share, from 1.13 billion euros or 4.39 euros per share. Revenues climbed to 6.38 billion euros from 2.05 billion euros.