US stocks fall the most in 2 years

Wall Street's major indexes fell 3% on August 5 - the lowest level since 2022, mainly due to investor fears of recession.

At the end of the trading session on August 5, the DJIA index fell 2.6% to 38,703 points. The Nasdaq Composite lost 3.43%, closing at 16,200 points. The S&P 500 fell 3%, to 5,186 points. Both the DJIA and S&P 500 indexes recorded their sharpest price declines since September 2022.

Investors continued to sell shares of tech giants and companies benefiting from the global AI wave. Technology was also one of the worst performers on Monday. Nvidia shares fell 6.4%. Apple fell 4.8% after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway sold half of its stake. Electric carmaker Tesla fell 4.2% and Super Micro Computer fell 2.5%.

At one point, the total capitalization of the top 7 companies on the US stock exchange (Apple, Tesla, Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta Platforms) evaporated by 800 billion USD. Yesterday, only 22 stocks in the S&P 500 "basket" increased.

Not only the US, many financial markets around the world have plummeted. At the end of the session on August 5, the Nikkei 225 index of the Japanese stock market fell 13% - the most since "Black Monday" in 1987.

South Korean stocks were forced to use circuit breakers as major indexes fell more than 8%. European markets were also in the red. Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency, lost nearly 15% of its value in 24 hours. Spot gold fell more than $70 an ounce at one point on the evening of August 5.

Markets fell as investors worried about a U.S. recession and the Federal Reserve slowed its rate cuts to stimulate the economy, leaving its benchmark interest rate unchanged at a two-decade high last week.

Japan’s second interest rate hike this year also weighed on markets, with investors selling other assets to repay yen-denominated loans, fearing further interest rate rises.