Amazon’s Stock Plummets by 4% Following Massive Antitrust Lawsuit Filing

In a terrible blow to Wall Street, the month of September has taken a sharp downturn for stocks, bringing them back to their June levels.

• The S&P 500 plummeted 63.91 points, or 1.5%, to 4,273.53, marking its fifth loss in the last six days.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 388 points, or 1.1%, to 33,618.88.
• The Nasdaq composite fell 207.71 points, or 1.6%, to 13,063.61.

September has witnessed a loss of 5.2% so far for the S&P 500, making it the worst month of the year by a large margin, as investors come to terms with the fact that the Federal Reserve will maintain high interest rates for an extended period. This growing realization has caused bond market yields to surge to levels not seen in over a decade, subsequently hampering stock and other investment prices.

On Wall Street, the majority of stocks experienced a decline on Tuesday, with 90% of those within the S&P 500 being affected. Big Tech stocks, in particular, were hit hard by high interest rates, weighing heavily on the index, according to the AP. Apple witnessed a drop of 2.3% and Microsoft lost 1.7%. In addition, Amazon took a dive of 4% after being hit with an antitrust lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission and 17 state attorneys general, who accuse the e-commerce giant of using its dominant position to inflate prices on other platforms, exploit sellers, and stifle competition.

Cintas suffered the largest loss in the S&P 500, declining by 5.3%, despite reporting higher profits for the latest quarter than analysts had anticipated. The provider of employee uniforms, mops, fire extinguishers, and other services also raised its profit forecast for the full fiscal year, although it still fell within the range of earlier analyst expectations.

Treasury yields continued their ascent on Thursday following a mixed batch of economic reports. The yield on the 10-year Treasury inched up to 4.55% from 4.54% the previous day, reaching its highest level since 2007. One report revealed that consumer confidence was weaker than economists had projected, which is concerning given that robust spending by US households has been a key factor in preventing a long-predicted recession. Another report indicated that sales of new homes across the nation declined more than expected last month, while a third report suggested that manufacturing in Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas may be stabilizing following a prolonged slump.

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