Wall Street’s nine-week winning streak concluded with a sharp downturn on Friday, driven by a slump in technology stocks that marked their biggest daily fall this year.
This followed a robust May jobs report, which fueled concerns that the Federal Reserve (the US central bank) might shift towards tightening monetary policy.
Selling pressure was concentrated on semiconductor manufacturing stocks and other favored technology shares that had seen significant gains over the past few weeks.
This occurred as both the Nasdaq Composite and S 500 indices repeatedly reached new record highs.
The three major indices closed sharply lower, with semiconductor manufacturing stocks declining, pushing the Nasdaq index, which includes major technology companies with high relative weight, to record its largest daily loss since last year.
The S 500 index also ended a nine-week winning streak, its longest since December 2023.
He added: “It is clear that the stronger-than-expected jobs report puts the Federal Reserve in a difficult position regarding any interest rate cuts for the remainder of the year.”
And “the market vented its anger in the form of heavy losses for companies that had achieved the biggest gains so far this year.”
The S 500 index fell by 199.64 points, or 2.63%, to close at 7384.67 points.
The Nasdaq Composite dropped 1117.38 points, or 4.16%, to 25713.58 points.
Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined by 684.53 points, or 1.33%, to 50877.40 points.