The Stock Markets in New York Opened Lower on Tuesday

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The stock markets in New York opened lower on Tuesday, partly due to concerns about the economic recovery from the corona crisis due to the advance of the Delta variant.

Supermarket group Walmart and DIY chain Home Depot were among the losers on Wall Street after announcing quarterly results. Attention was also focused on disappointing figures on US retail sales.

Home Depot lost more than 4 percent. The most significant hardware store chain in the world recorded record turnover in the past quarter. Sales rose less sharply than before during the pandemic. Now, the corona measures have been lifted, and Americans do chores around the house less often than during the lockdowns. Industry partner Lowe’s fell 3.6 percent in the wake of Home Depot.

Walmart, in turn, fell 0.6 percent. The performance of the world’s largest supermarket company was better than expected, and Walmart also raised its expectations for the full year, but investors had hoped for more.

The leading Dow-Jones index was down 0.8 percent shortly after the opening bell at 35,349 points, and the broad S&P 500 fell 0.7 percent to 4447 points. On Monday, new record levels were reached by these indicators. Technology stock Nasdaq fell 0.9 percent to 14,659 points.

Retail sales in the United States fell by 1.1 percent in July compared to June, when sales were still rising. The decline was stronger than economists had expected. In addition, US industrial production increased slightly more than expected last month.

Furthermore, pharmaceutical company Organon (plus 1.5 percent) was among the winners. Super investor Warren Buffett took a small stake in the original Dutch group with his investment vehicle, Berkshire Hathaway.

Online game platform Roblox (minus 7 percent) could also count on attention. The company’s quarterly results came in worse than expected, as people are less confined to their homes by the pandemic and less frequent computer games are played.