Tech Weakness and Slumping Consumer Confidence Lead to Market Decline

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 fell as tech stocks including Nvidia, dropped ahead of earnings. Consumer confidence hit its largest decline since August 2021. Gold, oil and financial stocks also weakened while housing and pharma showed strength.

The Nasdaq plunged 260.54 points (1.4%) and the S&P 500 slid 28.00 points (0.5%), although the narrower Dow bucked the downtrend and climbed 159.95 points (0.4%) to 43,621.16.

Significant weakness among technology stocks weighed on Wall Street, as reflected the notable slump by the tech-heavy Nasdaq. AI darling Nvidia (NVDA) tumbled by 2.8% ahead of the release of its fourth quarter results.

The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index plunged to 98.3 in February from an upwardly revised 105.3 in January. Stephanie Guichard, Senior Economist, Global Indicators at The Conference Board, noted the consumer confidence index saw its largest monthly decline since August 2021.

Semiconductor stocks substantial moved downside, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index tumbling by 2.3%. Computer hardware and software stocks also were considerably weak , contributing to the steep drop by the tech-heavy Nasdaq. A sharp pullback by the price of gold also weighed on gold stocks, resulting in a 1.6% drop by the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index. Oil, financial and airline stocks too were notably weak while housing and pharmaceutical stocks strongly moved upwards.

Asia-Pacific stocks moved mostly lower. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index slumped by 1.4% while China's Shanghai Composite Index slid by 0.8%. The major European markets turned in a mixed performance while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index crept up by 0.1%, the German DAX Index edged down by 0.1% and the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.5%.

In the bond market, treasuries moved sharply higher, extending a recent upward trend. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, tumbled 9.5 bps to a two-month closing low of 4.29%.

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