The Nasdaq delivered its worst session in several weeks, falling 2.3% on Tuesday as selling pressure swept the market.
The key driver was an announcement by one of the Federal Reserve’s members that they would begin to shrink their balance sheet. That means the Fed, which has been buying US Government bonds of various terms, would stop doing so and start letting some mature without reinvesting. This is seen as another step towards higher rates.
Musk takes board seat
The S&P 500 and Dow Jones outperformed, down 1.3% and 0.8%, with Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) gaining another 2% following conformation that Elon Musk would gain a board seat.
Exxon’s bumper profit
Oil company Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) indicated it will likely deliver a bumper quarterly profit of US$9 billion in the first quarter following a jump in the oil price, but that Russia-related writedowns may hit earnings.
Meanwhile, the US trade deficit fell after hitting a record amid a surge in imports, down to $89.2 billion.
US stock market movers
Here’s how other popular US stocks performed on Tuesday.
- Carnival Corp (NYSE: CCL) up 2.4%
- Uber (NYSE: UBER) down 4.3%
- Boeing (NYSE: BA) down 4.5%
- Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) down 4.7%
- Datadog (NASDAQ: DDOG) down 6.2%
- Block (NYSE: SQ) down 6.4%
Back home on the ASX, the S&P/ASX 200 (ASX: XJO) is expected to follow US stock markets lower when the market opens this morning. For a round-up of the latest news, check out my ASX 200 morning report.