Wall Street falls for the fourth consecutive session on fears of a recession

The actions of Wall Street closed lower on Monday for the fourth consecutive session and with the Nasdaq leading the declines, as investors shied away from riskier bets, concerned that the Federal Reserve’s tightening campaign (Fed) could push the US economy into a recession.

All three major US stock indexes have come under pressure since Wednesday, when the Fed chair struck a tough tone as the central bank raised interest rates. Jerome Powell promised new hikes, despite data showing signs of weakening in the economy.

The S&P 500the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq have suffered sharp falls in December and are on track to post their biggest annual declines since the 2008 financial crisis.

According to Brian Overby, chief market strategist at Ally, US Treasury yields rose as investors braced for a potential recession in 2023, ditching stocks in favor of safer options.

“Investors are asking why I want to take such risks going into 2023 with the Fed still hawkish when I can get such good returns in the fixed income market,” Overby said.

The absence of any big earnings reports or data on Monday sharpened investor attention on the economy and interest rates, according to Melissa Brown, global head of applied research at Qontigo in New York.

The S&P 500 lost 35.20 points, or 0.91%, to 3,817.16 units, while the Nasdaq Composite it was down 156.66 points, or 1.46%, to 10,548.75. The Dow Jones Industrial Average it fell 161.48 points, or 0.49%, to 32,758.98 units.

Among the hardest hit sectors were communications services, technology and consumer discretionary, while energy fared the best.

Market heavyweights like Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp y Amazon.com Inc were some of the biggest drags on the market.

The price of Tesla Inc It was volatile, falling as much as 2.8% during the session after a Twitter poll showed a majority wanted Tesla CEO Elon Musk to step down as chief executive of the social media platform.

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