Markets

Dow falls more than 600 points, S&P 500 tumbles below 4,000 to the lowest level in a year

Disney, Microsoft, and Uber are some of today's stocks: Pro Market Movers May 9
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Disney, Microsoft, and Uber are some of today's stocks: Pro Market Movers May 9

Stocks fell sharply Monday, pushing the S&P 500 to breach the 4,000 level for the first time in more than a year as the market sell-off continued.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 653.67 points to 32,245.70, or 1.99%. The S&P 500 fell 3.2% to settle at 3,991.24, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 4.29% to 11,623.25.

The S&P 500 traded as low as 3,975.48 on the day, dipping below the 4,000 mark to its lowest level since March 2021 and pulling back 17% from a 52-week high as traders struggled to bounce back from last week's big market swings. All sectors except for consumer staples dipped into the red.

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Amid the losses, the benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield hit its highest level since late 2018, trading well above 3%.

"This is significant repricing, this is significant dislocation and this is all being spurred and driven by Federal Reserve policy," said Jeff Kilburg of Sanctuary Wealth. "The only way I see us finding the bottom in equities short-term, the only way I see markets healing is if the Fed has the ability with the tools in their toolbox to calm down interest rates. The 10-year note needs to go back under 3%."

Rising rates continued to crush technology names such as Meta Platforms and Alphabet, which lost 3.7% and 2.8%, respectively. Amazon, Apple and Netflix all fell more than 5%, 3% and 4%, respectively, while Tesla and Nvidia plunged more than 9% each.

The combination of high rates and a potential recession as inflation surges also hit other areas of the market. Consumer stocks like Nike suffered along with industrials such as Caterpillar. Bank stocks also came under pressure with Bank of America falling 2.8%.

Boeing marked the biggest loser in the Dow, plunging more than 10% followed by energy bellwether Chevron which slipped 6.7% as U.S. oil futures continued to slide. 3M, Walmart, Amgen and Home Depot remained bright spots in the market, posting gains despite the broader sell-off.

"We expect markets to remain volatile, with risks skewed to the downside as stagflation risks continue to increase," wrote Barclays' Maneesh Deshpande. "While we cannot discount sharp bear market rallies, we think upside is limited."

Chart analysts are also seeing signs of a prolonged market downturn emerge.

"Our thinking is that stocks are likely to continue lower because we have not yet seen enough technical evidence to suggest a bottom process has started," wrote JC O'Hara of MKM Partners. "Technical indicators are not oversold enough. The volume profile has shown little if any signs of real capitulation."

On the earnings front, shares of Palantir cratered 21.3% as the company provided weak revenue guidance. Shares of BioNTech gained more than 3% after the company posted a strong quarter. First-quarter earnings season is slowing down, but there are several notable reports including Walt Disney and Occidental Petroleum slated for later in the week.

In other corporate news, Rivian shares plunged more than 20% after CNBC's David Faber reported on Saturday that Ford is looking to sell 8 million shares in the electric vehicle maker.

Monday's moves come after Wall Street finished an erratic week of day-to-day swings as investors weighed the prospects of rising interest rates and the prospect of slower economic growth.