Inflation worries pull US stock markets lower; NASDAQ 100 drops 400 pts, Dow Jones and S&P 500 fall 0.5%

The US stock markets opened in deep red across the board as investors worried that tightening financial conditions would hamper economic growth. The NASDAQ 100 fell the most, plunging over 440 points on Tuesday, amid sharp declines in the technology sector. The Dow Jones and the S&P 500 opened more than 0.5% lower respectively.

Meanwhile, crude oil prices stayed elevated throughout the day as fresh hostilities between the US and Iran in the region increased the fears of supply disruption. The Brent crude oil futures soared 2.2%, above $92.2 per barrel on Tuesday and the WTI crude oil prices crossed $88.3 per barrel mark.

Elevated crude oil prices led to sharp rally in the treasury yields adding to the investor worry of imminent rate hike in the September policy meeting. The US 10Y crossed the 4.78% mark, highest in three years. Meanwhile, the US 30Y yields soared to multi-decade high levels near to 5.2%.

At the stock specific level, the semiconductor and chip maker pack opened in the red as profit booking emerged in stocks like Nvidia (-1.3%), Intel Corporation (-3.2%), AMD (-2.2%), Micron (-2%), SanDisk Corporation (-2.0%), Texas Instruments (-3.4%) among others.

Among the magnificent seven stocks, Apple Inc alone soared 2% as John Ternus assumed responsibility as CEO after Tim Cook announced his exit yesterday. Shares of Apple were trading at $328 apiece on the NASDAQ at a $4.72 trillion valuation.

US Job opening slows down

The US new job openings increased by 89,000 in July to 7.271 million, below the estimates of 7.30 million. Additionally, the June job openings data was also revised lower to 7.187 million, adding more worries to the labor market conditions.

US manufacturing growth drops

The ISM manufacturing PMI fell to 54.5 in August, against 55.6 in July, signalling tepid manufacturing activity in the economy. The reading above 50 is considered to be expansionary and below 50 as recessionary. The US economy maintained the streak of 8-months of consecutive expansionary manufacturing activity in the economy.

(This is a developing story)