The overall stock index fell 1.6%, with losses accelerating at noon and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 300 points or 0.9%. The technology-focused Nasdaq Composite fell about 1.5%. The stock market is well on its way to closing in April on a turbulent note. The Nasdaq Composite is down almost 11% this month, continuing a punitive series of losses for the beginning of the year. The S&P 500 fell 6.7% in April. Throughout the month, investors have abandoned the shares of some of the biggest tech companies, which have been popular in the stock market for much of the last decade and led the market higher than its lows in March 2020. The US Federal Reserve is raising interest rates, making many of the wealthy companies that have soared in recent years unattractive. Many pandemic-era winners have also returned to earth as consumer tastes have evolved since 2020. Recently, the profit season has been littered with some high-profile frustrations from the group, offering shocking moves after the reports. Apple warned on Thursday that a resurgence of Covid-19 in China threatens to cut sales by up to $ 8 billion this quarter. Shares fell 0.7% in recent trading. Last week, Netflix shares fell more than 30% after earnings reports showed the company had lost subscribers. Movements in large technology companies can have a major impact on large stock indices due to their higher weighting compared to other stocks. “We are moving to a higher volatility regime when fundamentals are important again,” said Aashish Vyas, investment director at Resonanz Capital. “It seems we are in a systemic change.” Of course, some of the companies have impressed investors with their latest reports. Investors welcomed a steady profit report from Meta Platforms, helping it recover some of its losses this year, although the stock remains down almost 40% for 2022. For much of the month, many marketers and market watchers stuck to the drama surrounding Twitter as Tesla CEO Elon Musk took a stake in the company and then struck a deal to buy it. The tweets and the negotiations throughout the process caused intense instability in the shares of both companies. Shares of Twitter rose 29% this month, while shares of Tesla fell 16%. More recently, Tesla shares rose 4.3% after CEO Elon Musk revealed that he recently sold about $ 4 billion worth of shares to the electric car maker to fund the acquisition of Twitter, but said no further sales were planned.

Traders working on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Friday’s stock losses continue a volatile trend for key indicators, especially technology stocks.

          Photo: BRENDAN MCDERMID / REUTERS

In economic data, the Fed-preferred measure of inflation, the measure of the personal consumption-expenditure ratio of core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy costs, rose 5.2% in March from a year earlier. US consumer spending in March rose 1.1% from the previous month. “The reality is that weeks in this lockdown, we are returning to supply chain breaks that could affect inflation and put central banks in a difficult position,” said Esty Dwek, chief investment officer at FlowBank. “We have seen the beginning of improvements in supply chains, but this is likely to be reversed if these lockdowns in China last longer.” Giant cots are not limited to tech stocks. The broad S&P 500 has fallen around 11.5% this year, on a trajectory for the worst four months of a year since 1942. Investors around the world have also been concerned about the dramatic movement of currency assets into bonds. . In bond markets, the 10-year benchmark yield is well on its way to its biggest monthly gain since 2009. It recently hovered at 2.906%. In foreign exchange markets, the dollar soars as the yen collapses. The yen, a typical safe haven for investors around the world, has fallen to a 20-year low against the dollar, overturning typical global market dynamics and causing concern among investors. The WSJ dollar index, which measures the US currency against a basket of 16 others, fell 0.4% on Friday, but strengthened against other currencies this year in anticipation of the Fed raising interest rates, which are expected to occur faster and more aggressively than everything in the eurozone and Japan. Crude Brent, the international benchmark for oil, rose 1.6% to $ 108.96 a barrel in recent trading. The interruption of gas supplies from Moscow to some countries has worried traders for further interruptions as European countries try to move away from Russian energy. Abroad, the continental Stoxx Europe 600 added 0.7%. In Asia, Alibaba and other Chinese tech stocks jumped to double digits as investors hoped the Chinese government would do more to support the industry and the wider economy. The rise helped Chinese stocks recover some of their recent losses, while the yuan also fell against the dollar after a sharp sell-off in recent trading sessions. The Hong Kong Hang Seng Index rose 4%. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 2.4%. Write to Caitlin Ostroff at [email protected] Copyright © 2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8