US Market extends decline to second day amid Fed minutes

The US stocks declined steeply on Wednesday, 18 August 2021, with the major averages finished in the red for second straight session, as the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve's July monetary policy meeting revealed most officials believe it will be appropriate to begin tapering central bank's asset purchases this year.

At the close of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index fell 382.59 points, or 1.08%, to 34,960.69. The S&P 500 index dropped 47.81 points, or 1.07%, to 4,400.27. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index was down 130.27 points, or 0.89%, to 14,525.91.

Total 10 of 11 S&P500 sectors declined, while 1 sector ended in the green. Energy (down 2.4%) sector was worst performer, followed by healthcare (down 1.46%), information technology (down 1.39%), consumer staples (down 1.27%), financials (down 1.16%), and industrials (down 1.1%) sectors, while Consumer discretionary (up 0.15%) sector was top gainer.

Total volume turnover on U.S. exchanges was 7.86 billion shares, down from previous session volume of 8.25 billion shares. In the NYSE exchange, 901 issues advanced, 2368 issues declined, and 191 issues closed unchanged. In the NASDAQ, 1750 issues advanced, 2588 issues declined, and 226 issues unchanged.

Top five advancing stocks were PharmaCyte Biotech Inc (up 189.47%), SGOCO Group (up 67.4%), Virpax Pharmaceuticals Inc (up 49.2%), MDJM (up 27.6%), and Agrify Corp (up 23.75%), while bottom five declining stocks included Tuya Inc (down 19%), America's Car-Mart Inc (down 18.6%), Vaxcyte Inc (down 14.76%), Eco Wave Power Global (down 12.7%), and Renalytix PLC (down 11.05%).

The Wall Street Markets had been quiet for much of the day, with stocks mostly wobbling between small gains and losses. Stock losses accelerated toward the end of the trading session, after the Fed minutes, released Wednesday afternoon, showed most officials believe the economic recovery has advanced enough that the central bank to begin scaling back the bank's $120 billion in monthly purchases of Treasury and mortgage securities at any of the officials' three remaining policy meetings this year.

Among individual stocks, Home Depot shares fell 4.3% after the company's U.S. same-store sales fell short of estimates as pandemic-fueled do-it-yourself projects tapered off.

Among Indian ADR, INFOSYS fell 0.34% to $23.48, Wipro fell 0.78% to $8.86, WNS Holdings declined 0.34% to $82.97, HDFC Bank dropped 1.77% to $75.10, and Dr Reddys Labs fell 0.93% to $62.12, ICICI Bank slid 1.38% to $18.60, Tata Motors fell 0.2% to $19.44, and Vedanta fell 0.96% to $15.52.

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