Behind the global decline was, among other things, the downgrading of the US credit rating by the credit rating agency Fitch from the highest level to AA+, although analysts play down its market significance.
At the same time, a report from payroll processing company ADP showed more new jobs in the private sector in the US than expected. Employment increased by 324,000 people in July, which was significantly more than analysts’ estimate of 185,000 new jobs. It eased concerns about new interest rate hikes from the US central bank.
Interest rate hikes tend to hit the technology sector particularly hard, and several of Wall Street’s tech heavyweights retreated. Semiconductor giant Nvidia ended at minus 4.8 percent, Facebook’s owner company Meta and e-commerce giant Amazon retreated 2.6 percent and Google’s parent company Alphabet went down 2.4 percent.