US: Stocks fall ahead of key earnings, inflation data

WALL Street stocks fell Monday following news of another Covid-19 surge in China as investors nervously awaited US inflation data and earnings reports later in the week.

Officials in Shanghai launched another mass testing drive after some 120 new cases over the weekend, while casino center Macau embarked on a week-long lockdown to curb its worst coronavirus outbreak.

Meanwhile, investors were looking ahead to Wednesday's consumer price report for June, which will be scrutinised for clues about whether the Federal Reserve's aggressive moves to tighten monetary policy will need to be extended.

Other key releases this week will be the June retail sales report and the start of second-quarter corporate earnings season, with results from JPMorgan Chase, Delta Air Lines and others.

Markets have been fearful the earnings reports will highlight a weakening profit outlook.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 0.5 per cent at 31,173.84.

The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 1.2 per cent to 3,854.43, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 2.3 per cent to 11,372.60.

Among individual companies, Twitter plunged 11.3 per cent in the first session since Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk notified the company he was withdrawing a US$44 billion bid to acquire the social media platform.

Twitter said it plans to sue to force Musk to go ahead with the deal.

Casino stocks with holdings in Macau were hammered by lockdown news. MGM Resources International lost 3.2 per cent and both Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts slumped more than 6 per cent. AFP