Stocks fall on Wall Street, extending market’s losses

The S&P 500 fell 1.2% as of 12:10 p.m. Eastern and more than 80% of stocks within the index lost ground. The decline follows a weak finish last week that sank the benchmark index for a third straight week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 307 points, or 0.9%, to 33,505 and the Nasdaq fell 0.4%.

U.S. stocks are following global markets lower, especially in China, over worries that strict lockdown measures there might crimp the world’s second-largest economy and potentially hurt global economic growth. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slumped 3.7%. The Shanghai Composite fell 5.1%.

China’s capital, Beijing, began mass testing of more than 3 million people on Monday and restricted residents in one part of the city to their compounds, sparking worries of a wider lockdown similar to Shanghai. That city has been locked down for more than two weeks and that has already prompted the International Monetary Fund to trim its growth forecast for China’s economy.

Prices for ultra-safe U.S. government bonds rose as traders shied away from risk. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which affects rates on mortgages and other consumer loans, fell significantly to 2.77% from 2.90% late Friday.

Energy companies were among the biggest losers as U.S. crude oil prices slipped 6.1%. Exxon Mobil fell 6.2%.

Banks and technology stocks also fell. Bank of America fell 1.8% and Apple shed 1.7%.

Twitter rose 3.9% and was one of the few bright spots in the market. The social media company and Tesla CEO Elon Musk are reportedly negotiating a buyout offer.

Rising inflation remains a key concern for investors. Investors continue to focus on the measures being taken by central banks to temper the impact on businesses and consumers. The chair of the Federal Reserve has indicated the central bank may hike short-term interest rates by double the usual amount at upcoming meetings, starting next week. The Fed has already raised its key overnight rate once, the first such increase since 2018.

Investors have a heavy week of corporate earnings ahead. Reactions to the latest round of corporate report cards have been mixed and several disappointing profit reports last week shook what’s been the market’s main pillar of support.

Beverage giant Coca-Cola was mostly unchanged on Monday after reporting strong financial results. Google, parent, Alphabet, and General Motors will report their results on Tuesday, along with Microsoft and Visa. Boeing, Ford and Facebook parent, Meta, are on deck to report results on Wednesday.

Thursday is an especially busy day and will include reports from industrial giant Caterpillar, McDonald’s, Amazon and Apple, among others.

Wall Street will also get some key economic data this week. The Conference Board will release its measure of consumer confidence for April on Tuesday. The Commerce Department will release its first-quarter gross domestic product report on Thursday.