U.S. stocks have fallen once again on Tuesday owing to a sell-off in Internet shares led by Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR). This is the third time U.S. stocks have fell in last four days. Apart from internet companies, Financial Companies have been dragged down by the American International Group Inc.
Twitter led the decline
About 480 million shares from insiders at Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) have been offered for sale after the lock-up expiration. With this offer, the amount that is currently available for trading purpose has quadrupled, and the micro-blogging site plunged by 18%, the lowest level since debuting in November. The early investors, including Chris Sacca and Rizvi Traverse Management LLC, have pledged not to sell but still the decline was there.
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) have fallen by more than 4.1% while a decline of 3% was recorded in The Dow Jones Internet Composite Index. AIG informed that a drop of 27% has been noted in profits due to the rising cost of claims and it declined 4.1% post that. In the after-hours trading, Yahoo! Inc. gained 1.2% while Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. filed for an IPO, which can be the largest IPO in U.S. history.
Internet stocks down
The major indices saw a decline too. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) saw the biggest loss in more than three weeks, when it fell to 1,867.72 i.e. by 0.9% at 4PM in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU) retreated 0.8% to 16,401.02, which is fall of 129.53 points. A slump of 1.4% was noted in the Nasdaq Composite Index. The Bloomberg IPO Index that tracks stocks that include Twitter fell by 2.3%.
The best performers of the bull market were out for sale and this incurred huge losses to the bio-technology, small-cap and technology companies. Netflix, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) and E*Trade Financial Corp dropped by 3.9% at least while these were the ones, who gained more than 105% in 2013.
A decline of 18% has been made by The Dow Jones Internet Index since the peak it touched, in March. The Russell 2000 (RTY) Index fell by 1.6% and for the first time since 2012 it closed below its 200-moving average. The Nasdaq Biotechnology Index slipped by 1.7%.
“It seems the market is heavy,” Bill Schultz, chief investment officer at McQueen Ball & Associates in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, said in a phone interview to Bloomberg. “You have more of the slightly riskier stocks that have run into trouble here, in particular tech and biotech. Today, the financials are under pressure.”
