At the close of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index decreased by 222.84 points, or 0.67%, to 32,990.12. The S&P500 index dropped 26.09 points, or 0.63%, to 4,132.15. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index fell 49.74 points, or 0.41%, to 12,081.39. For the month, the S&P and the Dow closed fractionally higher while the Nasdaq was 2.1% lower.
Total nine of 11 major S&P sectors ended the session red, with energy (down 1.65%), materials (down 1.6%), utilities (down 1.38%), healthcare (down 1.37%), and real estate (down 1.34%) issues suffered the largest%age losses.
Equities began the day lower on worries inflation was proving more persistent, intensifying the debate over how quickly central banks will raise interest rates. Fears central-bank rate hikes may tip the economy into a recession are keeping investors watchful as rising food and energy costs squeeze consumers.
Federal Reserve governor Christopher Waller said in a speech at the Institute for Monetary and Financial Stability in Frankfurt, Germany, that he favored 50 basis point hikes at every meeting until there is a substantial reduction in inflation.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is meeting President Joe Biden in a rare Oval office meeting on Tuesday to discuss inflation ahead of US payroll numbers later this week.
Among blue chips, Johnson & Johnson, Honeywell International, Boeing and 3M shed about 2 to 2.8% in the session. Merck, Coca-Cola, Cisco Systems, American Express, JP Morgan Chase, Visa, Caterpillar and McDonalds also ended notably lower. Alphabet gained more than 1.5%, while Facebook, Microsoft and Apple ended with modest losses.
ECONOMIC NEWS: The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index dipped to 106.4 in May from an upwardly revised 108.6 in April.
Among Indian ADR, Wipro fell 2% to $5.98, WNS Holdings sank 1.4% to $72.77, ICICI Bank fell 0.57% to $19.25, Azure Power Global fell 4.8% to $14.86, and HDFC Bank fell 2.3% to $57.57. Dr Reddy's Labs sank 1.7% to $55.35. Tata Motors added 1.1% to $28.50 and INFOSYS added 0.37% to $18.86.
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