US equity markets retreated, selling off in the afternoon session after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell added his support for moving faster on raising interest rates to cool inflation, including through a potential 50 basis point hike in May - Dow down -368-points or -1.05%, recording an intra-day swing of more than >700-points. The broader S&P500 fell -1.48%, with the Energy sector (down -3.10%) leading all eleven primary sectors lower. Tesla Inc advanced +3.23% after the electric vehicle maker posted better-than-forecast earnings after the close pf the previous session, aided byprice hikes. The Nasdaq shed -2.07%, unwinding an earlier session rally of as much as +1.9%. Netflix Inc fell -3.52%, extending the previous session’s -35.12% slump after the streaming giant reported a net loss of -200K paid subscribers in the first quarter after the close of Tuesday’s (19 April) session. The small capitalisation Russell 2000 lost 2.29%. Gap Inc fell over >11% in the extended session trading after the clothing retailer said Old Navy Chief Executive Nancy Green would be leaving the company by the end of the week and that it expects a larger-than-expected sales declines for the fiscal first quarter because of “macro-economic dynamics as well as the execution challenges at the Old Navy brand.” Gap said it now expects first-quarter sales to decline in the “low to mid-teens year over year,” compared with a previously forecast decline of “mid to high single-digit year over year.”
