Wall Street sold off for a second straight session as a further rise in bond yields invoked a cautious response from investors, while heavy losses in the healthcare and energy sectors also weighed on the major indices - Dow fell -363-points or -1.37% to log its biggest one-day slide in eight months and the biggest two-day fall in more than a year. The Dow opened the session with a -241-point (-0.9%) gap down, the worst opening since September 11, 2002 (source: Reuters). The broader S&P500 fell -1.09% - the index's first -1% fall in 112 trading days - with healthcare stocks hammered after Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase announced they would partner in an effort to cut health-care costs and improve services for US employees. Dow component United Health fell -4.4% NASDAQ -0.86%. Apple fell -0.6% ahead of their fourth quarter earnings on Thursday (1 February), with reports the company is going to halve its iPhoneX production target for the first three months of the year (to around 20M units). Investors are looking ahead to the State of the Union address by President Donald Trump later today AEST and tomorrow's AEST latest monetary policy announcement from the Federal Reserve (with interest rates expected to remain on hold).
