US stocks fell after Monday’s trading session, the worst trading day in 5 weeks for both the S&P and the Nasdaq. This comes amid growing concerns over increasing regulation that large technology companies want to apply, which have led to a decline in the shares of the social networking giant Facebook.
Facebook shares dropped by 6.8 percent, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced calls from US and European lawmakers to explain how the consultancy working on campaigning for President Donald Trump was able to access data on 50 million Facebook users. The stock saw its worst day since March 2014, falling by 10.8% from its February 1 level.
The decline in Facebook shares weighed heavily on the technology sector in the Standard & Poor’s index, which led to a decline of the index by 2.11%. Facebook’s decline also affected the Nasdaq, which fell by more than 2%. Both indices recorded their worst daily performance since Feb. 8. The Dow Jones industrial average shed 335.6 points, or 1.35 percent, to close at 24,610.
Other big organizations operating in the tech business also fell, as concerns about regulation in the sector increased. Apple lost 1.53 per cent, while Alphabet fell 3 percent and Microsoft fell 1.8. All of this comes as investors are cautious ahead of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy meeting on Tuesday.
Markets believe that the Federal Reserve may decide to raise interest rates at the end of its session next Wednesday, as data showed that traders expect a quarter of a percentage point increase. Investors are now grappling over whether the economy’s recovery could lead to further gains than expected this year. Some investors’ questions about the Federal Reserve’s tone, which at this time of last year has been more divergent, have now spread to become more hawkish.
The industrial sector fell 0.82% on concerns about a global trade war, which is due to dominate a two-day G20 meeting in Argentina. With oversold selling, the CBOE volatility index hit a high of 21.87 in one of its biggest gains since last February’s sell-off.
The number of declining shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) outnumbered winning ones by 3.71 to 1, and on Nasdaq 2.68 to 1.
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