According to final results at the close, the Dow Jones index dropped 0.33% to 34,451.23 points.

The Nasdaq, whose technology stocks are very sensitive to interest rates, plunged 2.14% to 13,351.08 points.

The S&P 500 fell 1.21% to 4,392.59 points.

"US stocks closed lower ahead of a long three-day Easter weekend as investors digest a plethora of economic data and corporate results," Schwab analysts said.

Bond yields on 10-year Treasury bills, which rise when bonds are sold, have risen sharply to reach a new high since the end of 2018, at 2.82% against 2.69% the day before.

"I believe New York Fed Chairman John Williams' comments that a half-percentage-point rate hike was a 'reasonable option' put pressure on bond yields," he said. AFP Tom Cahill of Ventura Wealth Management.

According to him, investors seemed to revisit the inflation figures for US wholesale prices published the day before which were "very inflationary" at 11.2% annual, a record.

“Sometimes in the market, brokers have to digest the news and decide to make sound portfolio management decisions when there is only one conclusion to be drawn from these numbers: inflation is not not falling," said the analyst again.

Investors also adjusted their positions before the market closed for three days due to Good Friday.

Twitter remained the center of attention with the surprise and unsolicited offer to buy Tesla boss Elon Musk on the social network for $54.20 a share, or $43.4 billion. dollars.

The richest man in the world, who has a fortune of 274 billion dollars, announced last week to have become the largest shareholder of Twitter by acquiring 9.2% of the capital.

The Twitter action, which rose 2.80% in session, reversed the curve and ended down 1.68% to 45.08 dollars.

The whimsical Tesla boss confused the issue at a conference by saying he was "not sure" of succeeding in buying Twitter but that he had a plan B and "sufficient funds" to achieve it.

Tesla's title fell 3.66% to $985, while all the big names on the Nasdaq also plunged like Apple (-3%), Amazon (-2.47%) or Google (Alphabet -2 ,33%).

Investors also digested a series of mixed banking results.

Goldman Sachs (-0.10% to 321.64 dollars) saw its net profit decline in the first quarter but did better than expected, the strong brokerage activity to offset the decline in transactions of investment bankers.

Citigroup (+ 1.56% to 50.93 dollars) announced for its part to have provisioned 1.9 billion dollars to deal with possible losses related to its exposure in Russia and the impact of the conflict in Ukraine.

Its earnings per share, the benchmark on Wall Street, was however displayed above expectations, at 2.02 dollars in the first quarter.

The investment bank Morgan Stanley (+0.75% to 84.76 dollars) announced a less significant decline than expected in its quarterly profit, the activity of its traders having, as at Goldman Sachs, offset the decline in that of its investment bankers.

Among the indicators, retail sales in the United States in March rose less than expected, mainly driven by the rise in gasoline prices.

They rose by 0.5% against 0.6% forecast, spurred on by the jump in sales of service stations (+8.9% over one month).

In Frankfurt, the European Central Bank (ECB) confirmed the end of its asset purchase program "in the third quarter" but remained vague on its intentions on interest rates, indicating again that a first increase could intervene "some time later".

The inflation rate in the euro zone broke a new record in March, at 7.5% over one year.

The euro suffered the blow, faced with this wait-and-see attitude, plunging in session below the threshold of 1.08 dollars, to 1.0758, a lowest against the greenback for nearly two years.

Around 8:45 p.m. GMT, it lost 0.51% to 1.0832 dollars.

© 2022 AFP