US Stocks tumble on rate hike jitters, weak earnings

The US share market finished session steep lower on Friday, 22 April 2022, with the major averages slumping to their worst closing levels in over a month, due to increased certainty around aggressive near-term interest rate rises and disappointing earnings news from HCA Healthcare and Intuitive Surgical Inc.

At the close of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index declined 981.36 points, or 2.82%, to 33,811.40. The S&P500 index was down 121.88 points, or 2.77%, to 4,271.78. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index dropped by 335.36 points, or 2.55%, to 12,839.29. For the week, the Dow dipped 1.9%, the S&P dropped 2.8%, and the Nasdaq declined 3.8%.

Declining stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE exchange by 2803 to 538 and 112 closed unchanged. In the NASDAQ, 1167 issues advanced, 3550 issues declined, and 246 issues unchanged.

All 11 major S&P 500 sector indexes closed down, with bottom performing issues were materials (down 3.7%), healthcare (down 3.6%), communication services (down 3.3%), and financials (down 3%).

The steep selloff on the Wall Street triggered on Friday as concerns about risks from interest rate hikes continued to reverberate after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's hawkish pivot on Thursday. In comments, Fed backed moving more quickly to combat inflation and said a 50-basis-point increase would be "on the table" when the Fed meets in May.

Shares of HCA slumped 21.8% after reporting a downbeat profit view, while other hospital operators felt the contagion.

Surgical robot maker Intuitive Surgical dropped 14.3% after warning of weaker demand from hospitals due to tighter finances.

Shares of Gap fell sharply after the apparel retailer lowered its first quarter sales guidance and announced the departure of Old Navy President and CEO Nancy Green.

On the other hand, shares of Kimberly-Clark spiked after the consumer products company reported better than expected first quarter results and raised its full-year sales forecast.

Among Indian ADR, Wipro fell 1.6% to $6.76, HDFC Bank dropped 0.63% to $55.09, Dr Reddy's Labs fell 3.27% to $53.90, ICICI Bank declined 3.92% to $18.87, WNS Holdings shed 2.13% to $80.01, and Azure Power Global fell 3.4% to $14.24. Tata Motors dropped 2.8% to $28.09 and INFOSYS added 2.03% to $20.26.

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