The US markets extended their sell-off on Friday, once again led by tech stocks and tech-heavy Nasdaq closing below 4,000 for the first time since early February. Sentiments were also weighed down by the negative quarterly results from JP Morgan, which reported first quarter earnings that fell year-over-year and came in below analyst estimates. The company also reported weaker than expected revenues for the quarter. Though, on the economy front there was positive news, the Labor Department reported that US producer prices rose by much more than expected in the month of March. It’s producer price index for final demand advanced by 0.5 percent in March after edging down by 0.1 percent in February. Core producer prices, which exclude food and energy, also rose by 0.6 percent in March following a 0.2 percent drop in the previous month. Core prices had been expected to rise by 0.2 percent.
In a separate development, Reuters and the University of Michigan reported a bigger than expected improvement in consumer sentiment in the month of April. The report showed that the preliminary reading on the consumer sentiment index for April came in at 82.6 compared to the final March reading of 80.0.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 143.47 points or 0.89 percent to 16,026.75, the Nasdaq slumped by 54.37 points or 1.34 percent to 3,999.73, while the S&P 500 declined by 17.39 points or 0.95 percent to 1,815.69.
Indian ADRs made a mixed closing on Friday, HDFC Bank was up by 0.09%, Dr Reddy’s was up by 0.35% and Infy was up by 0.40%.On the other hand ICICI Bank was down by 0.40% and Tata Motors was down by 0.41%.