Friday 30 July 2021 5:11 pm | Updated: Monday 09 August 2021 12:30 pm

Wall Street dragged down by sinking Amazon shares

Wall Street edged back from record highs this evening after a surprise increase in jobless claims dimmed hopes of a swift economic recovery. — Data from the US Labor Department released today showed US inflation hit 5.4 per cent annually in July, the same rate recorded in June

US stocks fell sharply on Friday morning driven by shares in Amazon sinking after the EU slapped the firm with a record fine.

The blue-chip S&P 500 dropped 0.51 per cent, while the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq 0.36 per cent and 0.66 per cent respectively.

Shares in Amazon sunk as much as 7.1 per cent today after the company announced a meagre set of results last night that came in below analysts’ expectations.

The firm also also announced on Friday it had been hit with a record €746m (£635m) fine for breaking EU rules over how it processed customers’ personal data.

Fellow technology mega-caps registered losses, with Apple, Google-parent Alphabet, and Facebook falling between 0.6 per cent and 1.8 per cent.

Yields on ten-year Treasuries hovered around 1.22 per cent.

FTSE 100 slips to end July on a low

Sharp falls among mining stocks dragged London’s FTSE 100 into the red during afternoon trading.

The capital’s premier index slipped 0.57 per cent to 7,036. At not point during the day did the index recover back to yesterday’s closing level.

However, over the course of the, the FTSE 100 was up, rising from Monday’s close of 7,025.

Danni Hewson, AJ Bell financial analyst, said: “What a difference a day makes. Twenty-four little hours after investors were celebrating a bumper crop of earnings, sentiment has soured. July has been tumultuous for markets and navigating the conflicting economic data, geo-political shenanigans and a tsunami of company results has required Olympic standard dexterity.”

Miners slumped during opening exchanges in London, driven by commodity prices showing signs of weakness as international oil benchmarks Brent Crude and WTI both fell.

Strong results from the likes of NatWest – the bank posted £1.84bn in profits in the first half of the year – and Pearson, which upped its dividend, was not enough to lift the index into positive territory.

Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, said: “NatWest Group has followed in the footsteps of Barclays and Lloyds earlier this week by reporting a decent set of H1 numbers, as the unlocking of the UK economy boosts confidence, and a lot of the worst-case scenarios failed to play out.”

The domestically-focused FTSE 250 fell 0.44 per cent, while AIM shares gained 0.19 per cent.

Winners and losers

Property search site Rightmove led the day’s biggest risers, climbing 3.73 per cent to 705.60p after it published a bumper crop of results showing traffic to the portal swelled in the first six months of the year.

Publisher Pearson came second, up 3.22 per cent to 871p, while property investment firm Segro finished third, adding 2.3 per cent to hit 1,222.50p.

Quality assurance provider Intertek notched the day’s biggest losses, falling 7.99 per cent to 5,156p after underlying earnings came in seven per cent lower than analysts’ expectations.

British Airways parent company IAG slumped 7.45 per cent to 168.1p as investors fled the stock after the company reported it swung to a €2bn loss.

Alternative asset manager ICG came third, down 3.68 per cent to 2,170p.

Around the world

Asian shares have been battered this week driven by fears over the potential negative consequences of further regulatory crackdowns by Chinese authorities.

The Nikkei has fallen 2.53 per cent over the past five days, while China’s CSI 300 and Hong Kong Hang Seng have both plummeted 5.05 per cent and 3.22 per cent respectively over the same period.

European shares fared no better – the Stoxx 600 dipped 0.37 per cent during closing trading on Friday.