US Market falls for third day, crypto plunge

The US stock market finished lower for third session in row on Wednesday, 19 May 2021, as a steep fall in cryptocurrencies and as the Federal Reserve minutes showed the US central bank inching closer to a possible shift in future monetary policy.

At the close of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index declined 164.62 points, or 0.48%, to 33,896. The S&P 500 index was down 12.15 points, or 0.29%, at 4,116. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 3.90 points, or 0.03%, to 13,300.

Total 9 out of 11 S&P 500 sectors closed lower, with energy (down 2.53%), materials (down 1.54%), consumer discretionary (down 0.75%), financials (down 0.63%), and industrials (down 0.58%) sectors being notable losers, while information technology (up 0.33%) sector was notable gainers.

The Minutes of the U.S. central bank's April 27-28 meeting showed that a number of Fed policymakers thought that if the economy continued rapid progress, it would be appropriate "at some point" in upcoming meetings to begin discussing tapering government bond purchases.

Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency, tanked in the wake of China's move to ban financial and payment institutions from providing cryptocurrency services. Tesla, which have big exposure to bitcoin, tumbled on selling pressure, while payments companies Mastercard , Square and PayPal that accept crypto payments fell between 0.6% and 3.2%.

Target Corp. (TGT) shares gained after the company reported a profit of $2.09 billion compared with $329 million in the year-ago quarter.

Among Indian ADR, Dr Reddys Labs was up 0.63% to $72.20, ICICI Bank added 0.35% to $17.24, and INFOSYS added 0.99% to $18.44. WNS Holdings added 1.19% to $70.83 and Wipro added 0.27% to $7.47. Vedanta fell 3.51% to $15.14, HDFC Bank fell 0.59% to $73.55, and Tata Motors fell 4.84% to $20.85.

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