NEW YORK, New York – A sell-off in technology shares and growth stocks undermined Wall Street on Monday, ahead of a meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve which is likely to approve an increase in official interest rates.
“We’re seeing that rotation into value and away from growth, and a lot of that is tied to what’s happening to interest rates,” Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Investment Management in Chicago told Reuters news agency Monday.
“Equity markets are going to be challenged going forward, and today is yet another example of that.”
The Nasdaq Composite dived 262.59 points, or 2.04%, to 12,581.22.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.05 points to 32,945.24.
The Standard and Poor’s 500 declined 31.2 points, or 0.74%, to 4,173.11.
The euro picked up a touch on Monday, closing in New York at 1.0944. The British pound however slumped to 1.3004. The Japanese yen was sharply lower at 118.19. The Swiss franc fell to 0.9382.
The Canadian dollar dived to 1.2820. The Australian dollar was sold off to 0.7189. The New Zealand dollar was weaker at 0.6750.
Overseas, the German Dax rallied 2.21 percent. In Paris, France, the CAC 40 climbed 1.75 percent. London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.53 percent.
The Shanghai Composite in China tumbled 86.21 points or 2.60 percent to close Monday at 3,223.53.
The real damage however was in Hong Kong, where the Hang Seng plunged 1,053.95 points or 5.13 percent to 19,499.84.
Tech stocks were hardest hit with the Hang Seng tech index shedding more than 11 percent. Alibaba plummeted 11.12 percent. Meituan was down 16 percent, while TenCent tumbled 9.41 percent.
In Australia, the All Ordinaries rose 69.60 points or 0.95 percent to 7.408.90.
Across the Tasman, the S&P/NZX 50 slid 16.27 points or 0.14 percent to 11,805.11.0.59 percent to 2,645.65.
The key Japanese index, the Nikkei 225 added 145.07 points or 0.58 percent to 25,307.85.
In Seoul, South Korea the Kospi Composite fell 15.63 points or 0.59 percent to 2,645.65.
