US: Stocks dive under pressure from Chinese market

[NEW YORK] Wall Street equities slid on Monday after a big drop in the Chinese stock market sparked worries about global economic growth.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 127.94 points (0.73 per cent) at 17,440.59.

The broad-based S&P 500 fell 12.01 (0.58 per cent) to 2,067.64, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 48.85 (0.96 per cent) to 5,039.78.

Equity markets around the globe retreated after the Shanghai stock exchange plummeted 8.48 per cent on fears the Chinese government will pull back on support measures that have stabiliSed the market the last three weeks. Key commodities, including oil and copper, also fell.

"The marketplace is trying to wrestle with whether we see a global economic slowdown that's being predicted by a sell-off of commodities," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities.

Large bank stocks fell with Dow member JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America each losing 1.3 per cent.

High-flying technology stocks were another weak area. Facebook lost 2.9 per cent, Netflix fell 2.7 per cent and Tesla Motors dropped 4.6 per cent. Apple shed 1.4 per cent.

Petroleum-linked stocks also dropped, including Dow member Chevron (-1.6 per cent), Anadarko Petroleum (-2.3 per cent) and EOG Resources (-2.6 per cent).

US-listed Chinese companies declined, with e-commerce giant Alibaba losing 2.0 per cent and online retailer JD.com falling 7.2 per cent.

Allergan rose 6.1 per cent after reaching a deal to sell its generic drug business to Israeli giant Teva Pharmaceutical Industries for US$40.5 billion. Teva jumped 16.4 per cent.

Teva said it was abandoning an effort to buy rival Mylan, which sank 14.4 per cent. But Perrigo, which has opposed efforts to be acquired by Mylan, rose 3.8 per cent.

McGraw Hill Financial fell 5.7 per cent after announcing it would acquire data and analytics firm SNL Financial for US$2.23 billion.

Dow member General Electric advanced 0.8 per cent on news that French industrial giant Alstom agreed to reduce the price of its sale of energy assets to GE by 300 million euros ($332.8 million) to support the US company's efforts to win approval for the deal from European regulators.

Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury fell to 2.22 per cent from 2.26 per cent Friday, while the 30-year declined to 2.94 per cent from 2.96 per cent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.

AFP