NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks tumbled Thursday after weak manufacturing data raised doubts about the US economy, countering optimism about potential Federal Reserve interest rate cuts.
The Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing index came in at 46.8 per cent in July, down from the prior month and weaker than analyst estimates.
"The market might be beginning to fear that the economy is slowing to the point where we might be looking at a recession eight to 12 months from now," said Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital, who also noted that jobless claims topped estimates.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 1.2 percent at 40,347.97.
The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 1.4 percent to 5,446.68, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 2.3 per cent to 17,194.15.
US equities had risen at the open of trading after Fed Chair Jerome Powell opened the door to a September interest rate cut during Wednesday's press conference.
But equities began moving lower after the ISM data. Markets will get another key US economic data point on Friday with monthly jobs data.
Among individual companies, Facebook parent Meta jumped nearly five percent after reporting better than expected profits, on a 22 per cent jump in revenue to US$39 billion.
But semiconductor shares, which had won outsized gains on Wednesday, had a bruising session.
Nvidia dropped 6.7 percent, AMD sank 8.3 percent and Micron Technology fell 7.6 percent. --AFP