Wall Street hits the skids, Nasdaq drops more than 350 points

Lola Evans
28 Jan 2021, 07:16 GMT+10

The Nasdaq Composite tumbled 355.47 points or 2.61 per cent to 13,270.60.
The Standard and Poor's 500 shed 98.85 points or 2.57 percent to 3,750.77.
The Dow Jones index plummeted 633.87 points or 2.05 percent to close at 30,303.17.

NEW YORK, New York - Covering for short-selling saw some shares jump sharply on American stock exchanges on Wednesday, but overall the major indices tumbled.

"As weird as that may sound, what is partially responsible for what's going on today in the market is that there's a lot of selling going on to raise cash to cover some of these big shorts that are just getting pummeled," Sean O'Hara, president of Pacer ETF Distributors in Malvern, Pennsylvania told the Reuters Thomson news agency Wednesday.

The Dow Jones index plummeted 633.87 points or 2.05 percent to close at 30,303.17 - and it was the least damaged of the three major indices on Wednesday.

The Nasdaq Composite tumbled 355.47 points or 2.61 per cent to 13,270.60.

The Standard and Poor's 500 shed 98.85 points or 2.57 percent to 3,750.77.

The U.S. dollar rose as stocks fell. The euro dropped back to 1.2105 by the New York close Wednesday. The British pound dropped to 1.3678.. The Japanese yen weakened to 104.15, while the Swiss franc eased to 0.8889.

The Canadian dollar fell sharply to 1.2811. The Australian dollar was shunned at 0.7650, while the New Zealand dollar fell to .7151.

On overseas equity markets, the FTSE 100 in London slid 1.30 percent. The German Dax dropped 1.81 percent. The Paris-based CAC 40 saw off 1.16 percent.

On Asian markets, the Nikkei 225 fell behind 89.03 points or 0.31 percent to 28,635.21.

The Australian All Ordinaries was down 51.20 points or 0.72 percent at 7,060.20.

China's Shanghai Composite advanced 3.91 points or 0.11 percent to 3,573.34.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng shed 93.73 points or 0.32 percent to 29,297.53.

Watch latest videos

News RELEASES

Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Kansas City Post.

More Information

47 ℉

Fair in Kansas City/Downtown

International

Section

White House sets earlier date for supply to vaccinate all Americans

WASHINGTON D.C.: President Joe Biden says he expects there to be enough vaccinations for all Americans by the end of ...

Truck-SUV crash ends in 13 deaths, vehicle was carrying 25 passengers

HOLTVILLE, California: An overloaded SUV carrying as many as 25 passengers slammed into a semi-truck in California on Monday, killing ...

New York to allow weddings to begin March 15, some restrictions apply

ALBANY, New York: New York's new coronavirus-period dance rules will allow some dancing at parties. The state said that when ...

Repairing roads, bridges to be focus of White House, says officials

WASHINGTON D.C.: Looking beyond the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, President Joe Biden and other lawmakers are establishing the foundations ...

Black, brown communities targeted in Covid vaccination campaign

WASHINGTON DC - To boost vaccination rates among minorities, particularly Black and brown Americans, senior Biden administration officials say the ...

Justice Dept. to seek reversal of Texas eviction ruling

WASHINGTON D.C.: The U.S. Justice Department has announced it will appeal a court ruling that the federal prohibition on evictions ...

Business

Section