Morning Report 19 Mar 21: US sharemarkets fell on Thursday

An inflation-fuelled spike in US bond yields raised fears over technology valuations, causing investors to sell growth-focused companies. Shares of Tesla (-6.9%), Apple (-3.4%), Alphabet (-2.9%), Microsoft (-2.7%) and Facebook (-1.9%) all dropped. Dollar General shares slid 4.7% after the retailer provided disappointing sales and profit guidance. Chevron shares fell 3.6% as oil prices plunged. Bank stocks outperformed with shares of JPMorgan (+1.7%) and Goldman Sachs (+0.9%) both higher. At the close of trade, the Dow Jones index fell by 153 points or 0.5% after hitting intraday record highs earlier in the session. The S&P 500 index lost 1.5% and the Nasdaq index dropped by 409 points or 3.0%.  

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