Around 2:00 p.m. GMT, the Dow Jones yielded 0.15%, the Nasdaq dropped 1.21% and the S&P 500 0.74%.

These indices had concluded the previous week with a weekly loss of almost 4% for the Nasdaq, which is dominated by technology, 1.13% for the S&P 500 and 0.28% for the Dow Jones.

On Friday, the index of star stocks had gleaned 0.40% to 34,721.12 points.

The Nasdaq had lost 1.34% to 13,711 points and the S&P 500 had dropped 0.27% to 4,488.28 points.

The expectation of US inflation figures, the war in Ukraine, higher than expected price increases in China and the holding of a meeting of the European Central Bank (ECB) this week were all "sources of nervousness “Summarized Schwab analysts in a note.

While investors fear Tuesday's publication of inflation in the United States for March, which could reach more than 8% over one year, bond yields climbed to a new high for three years.

Yields on 10-year US Treasuries, which rise when bond prices fall, were 2.75% from 2.70% at the last close.

On the Nasdaq, so-called growth stocks, which are very sensitive to inflation and interest rates, fell sharply.

Google (Alphabet) lost 1.26%, Tesla -3.45%, Meta (Facebook, -1.09%).

Investors also kept a worried eye on China, where inflation accelerated sharply last month, as a resurgence of Covid-19 put several regions on hold.

Shanghai, the country's economic capital, has been in total or partial confinement for two weeks, with the 25 million Shanghainese forced to stay at home.

Oil fell sharply and moved below the 100 dollar mark per barrel, weighed down by fears that these confinements in China would affect demand for black gold.

On the agenda for the week, the ECB's monetary meeting on Thursday will also be closely followed by the markets.

The discussions should be heated between the "hawks", supporters of a rapid monetary tightening to curb the outbreak of prices, and the "doves", who fear that a withdrawal of support weighs down faltering growth.

The ECB is so far the most wait-and-see of the major central banks.

From Wednesday, the corporate results season opens with banks including JPMorgan, then Thursday Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup.

Listed, the online commerce site Shopify has proposed to its shareholders a plan to divide its share by 10 while retaining control of voting rights for the co-founder and leader of the Canadian group, Tobi Lütke.

The title, which had jumped to more than 1,600 dollars during the pandemic, has fallen sharply since and was worth 611 dollars (+ 1.44%) on Monday.

Shares of Texas-based computer security group SailPoint soared 29.13% to $64 as the company announced Monday an agreement with private equity firm Thoma Bravo to be acquired for $6.9 billion.

After a week of adventures between the boss of Tesla Elon Musk and the social network Twitter, the title of the platform gained 2.47% at the opening to 47.37 dollars while it lost as much in the exchanges of pre- market.

The whimsical billionaire has given up on Twitter's board of directors by tweeting a laughing emoji.

The richest man in the world announced in early April that he had taken a 9.2% stake in the capital of Twitter, making him the largest shareholder.

The title had already lost 3.75% on Friday.

© 2022 AFP