Day of reckoning arrives for market darlings after American tech rout
There was an inevitability about it but a lot of first-time investors would be consoling themselves today after shares went into a US-inspired tail spin.
The US Dow Jones fell by more than 800 points
The ASX 200 fell 146 points by 11am with the market darling, Afterpay, dropping more than 5 per cent as tech stocks were singled out in the rout.
But there were stocks that took a bigger hammering. Myer Holdings was down more than 7 per cent.
In the US, the Dow Jones index fell by more than 800 points, the biggest fall since the voilatile days of June. Apple shares fell 8 per cent, Microsoft 6 per cent and Amazon 4.6 per cent.
The US tech market reached a record high earlier this week, but Apple has now lost $365 billion in market value in two days of trading.
It follows a surge in new investors into the market. Nabtrade said applications to open a nabtrade account increased 500 per cent in March and 300 per cent in April, and Google searches for “how to buy shares” skyrocketed.
The Australian dollar was dropping as well.
