While you were sleeping: Dow plunges as tech stocks selloff continues

Wall Street plunged as a slide in tech stocks outweighed a rally in bank stocks and central banks in the US, Canada, the UK and the eurozone signalled a stance toward tightening monetary policy.

US Treasuries declined, sending the yield on the 10-year note four basis points higher to 2.270% from 2.225% on Wednesday. German bunds also slid.

"Markets are quite nervous about central banks," Andrea Tueni, a trader at Saxo Bank, told Bloomberg. "There is a kind of hawkish pivot by global central bankers that seems to have come in concert."

At the close of trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 167.58 points, or 0.8%, to 21,287.03. The Nasdaq Composite Index plummeted 1.4% to 6144.35 and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 0.9% to 2419.70.

The Dow fell as slides in Cisco, Microsoft, Intel and Apple, all down more than 2%, outweighed gains in JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, which benefit from a government decision to ramp up dividend payouts and share buybacks.

"US equities have remained extended, at or close to record territory for an extended period of time really without a tremendous amount of conviction in the market," Peter Kenny, senior market strategist at Global Markets Advisory Group, in New York, told Reuters.

"It's really been treading water. Without a major stimulus to drive prices higher, equities have to reset and that's what they're doing today."

Walgreens drops Rite Aid bid, buys stores instead
Shares of Rite Aid crashed 26.5% after Walgreens Boots Alliance abandoned a deal to buy its rival for $US9.4 billion. Instead it agreed to buy 2186 stores, three distribution centres and related inventory from Rite Aid for about $US5.2 billion.

"We believe this new transaction addresses competitive concerns previously raised with respect to the prior transaction and will streamline and simplify the transition for customers, team members and other stakeholders," Walgreens CEO Stefano Pessina said in a statement.

Shares of Walgreens traded 1.7% higher.

Meanwhile, shares of Blue Apron, a US meal-kit delivery company founded five years ago, struggled in their first day of trading, even after Wednesday's downgrade to its initial public offering price following Amazon's deal to buy Whole Foods.

Blue Apron sold 30 million shares at $US10 each, which had initially been marketed at $US15-17. The stock closed at $US10.00 after trading as high as $US10.46.

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index ended the day with a 1.3% retreat from the previous close.

Germany's DAX Index dropped 1.8%, France's CAC40 Index decreased 1.9% and the UK's FTSE 100 Index fell 0.5%.

(BusinessDesk)