The US stock market returned from the weekend and was a sea of red on Monday night. Investors were selling travel, banking, and energy shares down, leading to the Dow Jones having its worst day since October of last year.
The Dow Jones sank over 700 points or 2.1%, the S&P 500 dropped 1.6%, and the tech-focused Nasdaq index fell 1.1%.
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Why did the US stock market tumble?
Investors were hitting the sell button on the US stock market amid concerns over rising COVID-19 cases and the impact this could have on the global economic recovery. This follows surging delta variant infections across the United States, UK, and countries around the world.
Among the worst performers on Wall Street were travel shares, with airlines, cruise lines, and travel bookers falling heavily.
This doesn't bode well for the likes of Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd (ASX: FLT), Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN), and Webjet Limited (ASX: WEB) on Tuesday.
US banks fall
Also falling heavily on the US stock market overnight were US banks. Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and JP Morgan all fell around 3%.
This could mean an equally red day for Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) and the rest of the big four banks.
Though, the Australia and New Zealand Banking GrpLtd (ASX: ANZ) share price could behave differently depending on how well its announcement of a $1.5 billion share buy-back is received by the market.
Energy shares sink
Another group of shares that performed particularly poorly on the US stock market on Monday were energy producers. This followed a sharp decline by both the WTI crude oil price and Brent crude oil price after OPEC revealed plans to remove its production limits.
The oil cartel is intending to lift its production by 400 million barrels per day each month until September 2022. At that point, all its production cuts will have been reversed.
Oil prices fell as much as 8% overnight, which is likely to put pressure on energy shares such as Beach Energy Ltd (ASX: BPT), Santos Ltd (ASX: STO), and Woodside Petroleum Limited (ASX: WPL).
The Oil Search Ltd (ASX: OSH) share price could be an outlier, though. This morning it revealed that it recently received and rejected a takeover approach. No details were provided on the price offered or the company making the proposal.
