Wall Street ended sharply lower on Wednesday, with Target losing around a quarter of its stock market value and highlighting worries about the US economy after the retailer became the latest victim of surging prices.Target Corp’s first-quarter profit fell by half and the company warned of a bigger margin hit on rising fuel and freight costs. Its shares fell about 25 per cent, losing about US$25 billion in market capitalization, in their worst session since the Black Monday crash on Oct.
Interest-rate sensitive megacap growth stocks added to recent declines and pulled the S&P 500 and Nasdaq lower. Amazon , Nvidia and Tesla Inc dropped close to 7 per cent, while Apple fell 5.6 per cent. Rising inflation, the conflict in Ukraine, prolonged supply chain snarls, pandemic-related lockdowns in China and monetary policy tightening by central banks have weighed on financial markets recently, stoking concerns about a global economic slowdown.
The Nasdaq declined 4.73 per cent to 11,418.15 points, while Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 3.57 per cent to 31,490.07 points. The CBOE volatility index, also known as Wall Street’s fear gauge, rose to 31 points after falling for six straight sessions.