By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 23rd, 2024
At the time of writing, the Dow Jones was at around 28,292.73 points, having lost 807 points, which is approximately 2.78%.
On Wednesday, major U.S. stock indexes led by the Dow Jones, Nasdaq Composite, and S&P 500 experienced the worst single-day sell-off since the black Thursday in March. The sell-off in major indexes was largely triggered by leading tech stock including Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL), Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT), Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA) that on average lost approximately 9%.
The sell-off also significantly affected major cryptocurrencies whose huge trading volume is affected and controlled by the United States dollar.
With the US presidential elections approaching, whose policies affect social media companies like Facebook and also Twitter, any sort of policy alteration is likely to contribute to sell-off, as investors rush to flee the perceived risky markets.
At the time of writing, the Dow Jones was at around 28,292.73 points, having lost 807 points, approximately 2.78%. The Nasdaq Composite Index was at around 11,458.10, having lost 598 points, approximately 4.96%, while the S&P 500 index was at around 3455.06, having dropped 125.78 points, approximately 3.51%.
Stock Sell-Off that Affected Dow and Other Indexes
On Wednesday, the United States major federal department released important data that probably affected the stock market.
One, according to data provided by the Department of Labor, the number of individuals who filed for unemployment insurance for the first time during the past week decreased from 1011k to 881k, whereby the data is released weekly, 5 days after the weekends.
In addition, the Institute for Supply Management released the ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI that measures the level of a diffusion index based on surveyed purchasing managers, excluding the manufacturing industry. According to its metrics, the figure recorded after one month dropped by 2 points to around 56.9, whereby it was not good for the dollar that continues to weaken against major global currencies like the British Pound and the Euro.
Tesla shares dropped 9.02% during the day to close the market trading at $407, and are 2.36% down in today’s pre-market.
Apple shares on the other hand dropped 8.01% to close the day trading at 1$120.88, and are down 0.56% in the premarket.
Microsoft shares dropped 6.19% on Wednesday to close the day trading at $217.30, but have added 0.32% in today’s premarket.
Other tech and major companies’ stock markets were in red yesterday, which largely contributed to Dow Jones and other indexes dropping a significant percent.