According to final results at the close, the Dow Jones index lost 0.71% to 31,761.54 points.

The Nasdaq fell 1.87% to 11,562.57 points and the S&P 500, the most representative of the American market, lost 1.15% to 3,921.05 points.

Warnings from Walmart, the nation's largest retailer, have cast a chill.

The American supermarket chain significantly lowered its quarterly and annual profit forecasts on Monday evening, as customers were forced to spend more on food and moved away from higher-margin items.

Walmart's stock fell 7.60% to $121.98, not far from its lowest since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Soaring food and fuel prices are shifting consumer budgets, forcing retailers to run promotions, stock more unsold items and postpone orders.

"While the market has probably already priced in the Fed's interest rate hike" expected on Wednesday, "it obviously hasn't priced in the company earnings surprises", summarized for AFP Maris Ogg, of Tower Bridge. Advisors.

“Obviously, the consumer is weaker than we thought and in addition, the retailers do not have the goods on their shelves,” added the portfolio manager.

"My clients are all affluent, but now they're nervous because of the stock market, because of inflation, and because of the consumer base," she continued.

Trade damaged

The titles of other retailers have plunged in stride such as Target supermarkets (-3.62%), the low-cost chain Dollar Tree (-6.29%) or that of semi-wholesale Costo (-3.25% ).

Amazon, the number one in online distribution, was not left out (-5.23%).

One of the darlings of Wall Street, Shopify, the platform for online retailers, based in Canada, fell 14% to 31.55 dollars after announcing the layoff of 10% of its staff, or 1,000 people.

The company, whose stock soared to $213 in November 2021 at the height of the pandemic and online shopping, gave a mea culpa on its e-commerce growth expectations, "whose bet didn't pan out. paid statement", recognized its founder.

Other bad news on the front of economic data, “the consumer confidence index published by the Conference Board in July fell for the third month in a row”, noted analysts at Wells Fargo.

But it was primarily the technology-dominated Nasdaq that weighed down the market, pending the results of Google (Alphabet) and Microsoft, announced after the close.

"When you have a session like today, people are like, 'Wow, retail is not doing well, so what's going to go down next?'" explained Maris Ogg. .

“So we take profits from names that have rebounded before,” like technology.

Alphabet (Google) thus ended down 2.56% to 105.44 dollars but the title rose after the close in electronic trading (+2.63%) after the announcement of its results.

Although in slow growth in terms of turnover and declining in terms of profit, the accounts of the web giant in the 2nd quarter are less disappointing than feared.

Microsoft, on the other hand, which closed down 2.68% to 251.90 dollars, continued to fall after the close (-1.15%) after results worse than expected.

The Federal Reserve (Fed) program on Wednesday, which is expected to raise interest rates for the fourth consecutive time, according to forecasts, added to market jitters as the dollar surged, especially against the euro, amid a lackluster backdrop for the euro area.

An increase of 75 basis points is widely expected.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will speak at a news conference as markets await clues on future rate moves.

Another sector to have bled on Tuesday was that of cryptocurrencies.

The Coinbase trading platform, further melted by 21% to 52.93 dollars after press reports evoking an investigation by the stock market policeman, the SEC, on its exchanges.

This would be a new case after that of insider trading by members of its staff, revealed last week.

Bitcoin lost almost 6% to $20,886 while Ethereum lost 9.40% to $2,122.

© 2022 AFP