US stocks ended sharply lower on Tuesday, with each of the major indexes suffering their fourth decline in five sessions, fuelled by a selloff in the tech sector.
Tech stocks have been under pressure recently as concerns about government regulation stemming from their strong growth and privacy questions surrounding Facebook.
Facebook shares dropped 4.9 per cent at $152.22, down nearly 15 per cent for the month. The Nasdaq Internet index saw its worst daily percentage drop since June 2016.
Of the 11 major sectors of the S&P 500 only defensive plays such as consumer staples, telecom, real estate and utilities ended the session in positive territory.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 344.89 points, or 1.43 per cent, to 23,857.71, the S&P 500 lost 45.93 points, or 1.73 per cent, to 2,612.62 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 211.74 points, or 2.93 per cent, to 7,008.81, reports Reuters.
Alphabet shares fell 4.5 per cent after an appeals courts resurrected a multibillion dollar copyright case brought by Oracle Corp against the company.
Nvidia was another weak spot, falling 7.8 per cent after the chipmaker temporarily suspended self-driving tests across the globe.
Tesla shares were off 8.2 per cent after the US National Transportation Safety Board opened a field investigation of last week’s fatal Tesla crash and vehicle fire.
Twitter fell 12 per cent after short-seller Citron Research called the stock “most vulnerable” to privacy regulations.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 2.12-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 3.36-to-1 ratio favoured decliners.
Volume on US exchanges was 7.57 billion shares, compared to the 7.37 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.