US Market declines from all-time highs

The US stocks retreated from a stretch of records on Tuesday, 17 August 2021, with the Dow, the S&P500, and the Nasdaq indexes closed in the red, as weaker-than-expected retail sales data and concerns about the dampening effect of the Delta variant of Covid-19 on economic recovery and potential pitfalls including geopolitical uncertainty weighed on investor optimism.

At the close of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index fell 28212 points, or 0.79%, to 35,343.28. The S&P 500 index dropped 31.63 points, or 0.71%, to 4,448.08. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index was down 137.58 points, or 0.93%, to 14,656.18.

Total 7 of 11 S&P500 sectors declined, while 4 sectors declined. Consumer discretionary (down 2.31%) sector was worst performer, followed by materials (down 1.21%), industrials (down 1.06%), communication services (down 1%), energy (down 0.92%), and financials (down 0.84%) sectors, while healthcare (up 1.12%%) sector was top gainer.

Total volume turnover on U.S. exchanges was 8.25 billion shares, up from previous session volume of 7.61 billion shares. In the NYSE exchange, 899 issues advanced, 2434 issues declined, and 166 issues closed unchanged. In the NASDAQ, 1270 issues advanced, 3199 issues declined, and 202 issues unchanged.

Top five advancing stocks were Virpax Pharmaceuticals Inc (up 265.48%), Alfi Inc (up 40.64%), monday.com (up 24.45%), Biodesix Inc (up 21.5%), and Ensysce Biosciences Inc (up 18.97%), while bottom five declining stocks included Helbiz Inc (down 29.67%), TuanChe (down 26.77%),Sunlight Financial Holdings Inc (down 26.48%), View Inc (down 24.32%), and Kubient Inc (down 22.3%).

The weakness on Wall Street came after the Commerce Department released a report showing U.S. retail sales tumbled by much more than expected in the month of July. The report said retail sales slumped by 1.1% in July after climbing by an upwardly revised 0.7% in June.

A steep drop by shares of Home Depot (HD) also weighed on the markets, with the home improvement retailer plunging by 4.3% after reporting second quarter earnings.

Among Indian ADR, INFOSYS added 0.68% to $23.56, Wipro added 0.9% to $8.93, WNS Holdings added 0.16% to $83.25, HDFC Bank added 1.62% to $76.45, and Dr Reddys Labs added 0.03% to $62.70, while ICICI Bank slid 1.15% to $18.86, Tata Motors fell 3.66% to $19.48, and Vedanta fell 12.2% to $15.67.

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