Stocks update: Nasdaq drops 3%, Tesla stock down 10%

Nasdaq fell sharply on Tuesday as US stocks struggled yet again, with the tech-heavy index edging lower amid widespread selling. The index was down 3.4% in early afternoon trading.

The S&P 500 was also down, losing by more than 2.3% as investors’ appetite for risk took another hit. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down nearly 700 points, and was 2.1% in the red.

Are you looking for fast-news, hot-tips and market analysis?

Sign-up for the Invezz newsletter, today.

Tuesday’s struggles for the US market followed mixed closes for Asian and European stocks. In Asia, mainland Chinese shares continued to bleed with the Shanghai Composite closing 1.4% down. The Shenzhen component lost 1.7%. Stocks in Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea ended the session slightly higher.

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 closed nearly 1% lower, while Germany’s DAX slumped 1.2%. UK’s FTSE 100 made very modest gains of 0.08%.

Tesla stock down more than 10%

Tesla was the biggest among mega-cap stocks after it declined by more than 10%, with Elon Musk-led company continuing to see downside pressure in afternoon trading.

Tesla’s sell-off comes just a day after CEO Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion. Twitter’s stock, which had plummeted after the company’s board approved Musk’s bid, was also down by over 3% on Tuesday.

Elsewhere, General Electric and Universal Health Services, which were down 10% and 9% respectively, fell after their first-quarter results. General Electric reported better than expected earnings. However, shares fell after the company’s indication that supply chain woes and inflation pressures could hit full-year profits.

For Universal Health, the declines followed its 12% earnings per share miss for Q1.

In the mega-cap section, shares of Google, Apple, Amazon, and Meta also declined. All the major tech stocks were losing by more than 2% with less than an hour of trading to go.