US stocks sink amid renewed worries over Turkey

New York: Wall Street stocks tumbled early Wednesday as renewed worries about Turkey offset solid US retail sales data.

About 30 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1 percent to 25,019.70.

The broad-based S&P 500 fell 1.1 percent to 2,809.07, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index plummeted 1.4 percent to 7,763.55.

The Turkish lira continued to rally from record lows on Wednesday, but Ankara hiked tariffs on a spate of US goods in retaliation for American sanctions on Turkey.

Also of concern, a Turkish court rejected an appeal to release American pastor Andrew Brunson, -whose detention for almost two years sparked the crisis. That leaves no immediate solution to the Turkey-US row in sight.

Investor remains “skittish in the face of the extended rise in the US dollar and the festering economic/currency turmoil in Turkey,” according to Charles Schwab analysts.

US retail sales rose 0.5 percent in July to $507.5 billion, overshooting analyst forecasts, which had called for a token 0.1 percent increase.

Among individual stocks, Macy’s slumped 11.2 percent amid disappointment over the department store chain’s forecast. The retailer projected overall annual sales ranging from flat to a 0.7 percent increase compared with fiscal 2017.

Constellation Brands dropped 8.8 percent after announcing a $4 billion deal to significantly boost its stake in Canopy Growth, a Canadian cannabis company. US-traded shares of Canopy Growth shot up 28.4 percent.

AFP