Wall Street struggled to build momentum on Tuesday, with stocks showing signs of exhaustion after a record-breaking rally. The slowdown comes amid growing speculation of a bubble forming around transformative technology, fueling concerns that the boom could eventually mirror the dot-com crash of 25 years ago.
"Profit-taking risks have rapidly risen across markets, and are particularly elevated for Nasdaq, potentially hampering further upside," said Citi's Chris Montagu to news agency Bloomberg.
As of 09:00 p.m., the Dow Jones Industrial Average was trading 0.22% lower, the S&P 500 was also down 0.43% while Nasdaq saw the steepest fall to 0.70%.
Some Wall Street analysts warn that the rapid, double-digit surges in several major tech stocks may indicate valuations are drifting away from underlying fundamentals. They suggest investor behavior is being driven more by a fear of missing out than by solid financial reasoning.
Only three of the 11 sectoral indices was trading in green. Consumer discretionary sector led the decline, while the utilities sector led the advancing sectors.
AMD, Palantir and Intel were amongst the gainers for the day. On the other hand, Tesla and Plug Power were trading in the red.
Spot gold traded volatile around $3,990 per ounce, swinging between $3,980 and $3,940. Crude oil prices slipped, with the West Texas trading 0.21% lower at $61.56 per barrel.
The Bloomberg Dollar Index rose 0.32% to 98.4180, with the British Pound down 0.32% at 1.3442 euros and the Japanese yen up 0.49% to 151.08 per dollar. Bitcoin, the largest traded cryptocurrency saw a decline to $122,305.2800.
As the US market opened, the S&P 500 was up 0.13% or 8.60 points at 6.748.88, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq index opened 0.10% or 22.14 points higher at 22,963.80.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, however, bucked the trend to open 0.14% or 63.31 points lower at 46,694.97.
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