Wall Street marks the biggest drop since May as Evergrande crisis intensifies
01:17
Wall Street added to the global fall in equities on Monday as the liquidity crisis at Chinese property developer Evergrande shook stock markets in Asia, Europe, and the US.
The S&P 500 fell 1.7 percent, marking its worst day of trading since May. It dropped as much as 2.9 percent earlier on Monday but recovered some of its losses in late afternoon trading. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite slid 2.2 percent.
Monday’s sell-off came after shares in Evergrande, the world’s most indebted property developer, closed 10 percent lower in Hong Kong to hit their weakest level since May 2010.
Concerns about the broader health of China’s real estate sector triggered a wider sell-off, sending the Hang Seng Property Index, which tracks a dozen listed developers, down almost 7 percent to its lowest point since 2016.
Evergrande has obligations of more than $300bn to creditors and other businesses. An interest payment deadline on its offshore bonds looms on Thursday.
The US and global stock markets have repeatedly hit record highs this year but had already begun to slip this month due to worries about slowing economic growth, the impact of the Delta coronavirus variant, and the potential for central banks to begin withdrawing stimulus measures.
(ISBnews)
