US equity markets retreated amid a fresh rotation out of technology stocks amid rising bond yields - Dow lost -324-points or -0.94%. Merck & Company Inc rose +2.09%, building on an +8.37% gain in last Friday’s (1 October) session after the pharmaceutical major and partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics said their oral antiviral treatment for COVID-19 reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by 50% for patients with mild or moderate cases. Merck is now planning to submit an application for an emergency use authorization for the treatment from the Food and Drug Administration and will also seek it from other regulatory bodies around the world. The broader S&P500 shed -1.30%, taking the index more than halfway to an official correction (defined as drop 10% from their most recent high). Information Technology (down -2.36%) and Communication Services (-2.11%) leading eight of the eleven primary sectors lower. The Energy sector (up +1.63%) was the leading primary sector performer, tracking strong gains on crude markets. Exxon Mobil Corp rose +1.30% and Conocophillips +1.98%. The Nasdaq lost -2.14%. Facebook Inc shed -4.89%, logging the worst single-day percentage decline since a -5% fall on 9 November, 2020 following a national broadcast of a whistleblower’s allegations that the social media network placed profits before safety. The social media’s woes were further compounded by a widespread outage of Facebook services, including Instagram and WhatsApp. Separately, Facebook filed a motion to dismiss the Federal Trade Commission’s amended antitrust lawsuit against the company, saying the agency’s complaint still lacked evidence Facebook violated antitrust laws. Elsewhere among major technology names, Apple Inc fell -2.46%, Amazon.com Inc -2.85%, Microsoft Corp -2.07% and Nvidia Corp -4.87%. However, Tesla Inc rose +0.81% after the company announced over the weekend that it had delivered 241,300 electric vehicles during the third quarter of 2021, topping analysts forecasts for the delivery of around 221K. The small capitalisation Russell 2000 lost -1.08%.
