According to final results at the close, the Dow Jones index lost 1.51% to 35,368.47 points on the New York Stock Exchange.

The Nasdaq, where technology stocks that are very sensitive to interest rates are concentrated, fell 2.60% to 14,506.90 points.

The S&P 500 fell 1.84% to 4,577.11 points

Bond rates on 10-year bills climbed to their highest for more than two years at 1.87% against 1.78% the day before.

Wall Street remained closed on Monday due to a public holiday.

In the wake of the bond tension, the dollar gained strength against the euro at 1.1322 dollars for one euro (+0.75%) while oil prices continued to soar, rising to a peak since 2014.

"The market is trying to see more clearly on how the Central Bank (Fed) will go about managing inflation," commented Adam Sarhan of 50 Park Investments.

"The Fed has its back to the wall and the market is worried. How will it do if inflation persists, how to balance the risks to raise rates without slowing growth?" Asked the analyst.

Investors were again gripped by fears of the Fed's tightening, a week before the meeting of the Monetary Committee of the powerful central bank, "while there are new comments on the market which evoke the possibility of up 50 basis points from March," Patrick O'Hare of Briefing.com reported.

So far the markets have priced in three 25 basis point hikes in 2022.

"It's a possibility," said Adam Sarham.

“The Fed is very creative and could surprise the market,” he added.

Yields on shorter two-year bills accelerated their rise to 1.04% for the first time since February 2020.

The fall of Wall Street was led by that of stocks in the technology sector in particular.

All the big names in tech lost ground, from Facebook (Meta, -2.96%) to Google (Alphabet, -2.50%) via Amazon (-1.99%) and Apple (-1 .89%).

"The technology sector, which contains many companies valued primarily on the promise of their future earnings, is under pressure due to soaring Treasury yields," explained Art Hogan of National Securities.

“The higher the yields, the more the future income of these groups loses value,” adds the analyst.

The banking sector also struggled, as corporate results will focus investors' attention from this week.

Goldman Sachs, a member of the Dow Jones, disappointed and was heavily sanctioned (6.97% to 354.40 dollars).

Even if the American investment bank experienced record turnover and profits in 2021, its results did not live up to expectations in the 4th quarter.

Morgan Stanley, whose results are expected on Wednesday, also plunged 4.78% to 94.15 dollars.

Featured in the rating, the American video game giant Activision-Blizzard was bought by Microsoft for the record sum of 69 billion dollars, announced the computer group.

The title of the publisher of "Call of Duty", "World of Warcraft" and "Candy Crush", gained 25.88% to 82.31 dollars.

If the transaction is confirmed, it will be the largest acquisition in the video game sector, far ahead of the takeover of Zynga by Take-Two for $12.7 billion announced last week.

For Microsoft too, this is the largest takeover in its history.

The stock slipped 2.43% to $302.65.

The other major video game groups benefited from the trend, such as Electronic Arts (+2.66%) or Take-Two Interactive (+0.96%).

© 2022 AFP