US equities tumbled to a 13-month low on Mon. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 653.67 pts or 1.99% lower to close at 32,245.70. The broader S&P 500 index fell 3.2%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite retreated 4.29%. The small-cap Russell 2000 dropped 4.21%. All sectors except for consumer staples fell on Mon.
Investors appeared to be more worried about an economic slowdown than higher interest rates and inflation. Treasury yields fell and commodity prices dropped.
Oil fell the most since Mar. The front-month Brent and WTI futures closed down $6.45 at US$105.94/bbl and $6.68 at US$103.09/bbl respectively. Aramco dropped the price of Arab Light grade for Asia by almost $5 a barrel.
The most actively traded US gold futures (Jun) contracts settled down $24.20, or 1.3%, at US$1,858.60/oz. July silver, which is the most actively traded silver futures, fell 54.7 cents, or 2.4%, to end at US$21.820/oz.
The shares of fertilizer company Mosaic (MOS US, -12.79%), which has been a bellwether for rising agricultural prices, fell sharply.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note reached 3.20% before slipping back 9.27 basis points (bps) to 3.0338%, while the yield on the 2-year Treasuries fell 13.7 bps to 2.5938%.
The ICE dollar index (DXY), which measures the strength of the greenback against a basket of currencies, was little changed at 103.651.
Bitcoin (XBTUSD, -9.54%) dropped below $31,000 for the first time since Jul 2021, putting its drop from Nov’s high at more than 50%.
European equity markets finished lower on Mon. The UK FTSE lost 2.32%, France's CAC 40 fell 2.75%, while the German DAX retreated 2.15%.