Investing.com – Wall Street fell on Monday amid news of Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) data misuse and political uncertainty.
The S&P 500 was down 20 points or 0.75% to 2,731.42 as of 9:44 AM ET (13:44 GMT) while the Dow composite decreased 170 points or 0.68% to 24,776.40, and tech heavy NASDAQ Composite fell 78 points or 1.04% to 7,403.92.
Facebook slumped 5.01% amid news that political research firm Cambridge Analytica collected data on 50 million Facebook users without their knowledge, prompting British and American lawmakers to demand an investigation.
Meanwhile investors were looking ahead to when the Federal Reserve delivers its interest rate decision. Traders are expecting an interest rate increase as Fed chair Jerome Powell gives his first press conference but concerns linger that rates could increase more than expected.
Other issues weighing on investor’s minds were increased political uncertainty in Washington.
Investors have been on edge lately over changing trade policy in Washington and a flurry of Trump administration departures. Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports early in the month, which have risen trade war uncertainty. He also fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson last week and Gary Cohn resigned from his role as director of the National Economic Council after disagreements over the tariffs.
Technology stocks were mostly down. Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) fell 1.62% while Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) dipped 1.10% and luxury car maker Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) was down 1.67%. Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) decreased 1.56% and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) slipped 0.96%.
Elsewhere Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) rose 1.05% while Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) inched up 0.19%.
In Europe stocks were down. In Germany the DAX fell 111 points or 0.90% while France’s CAC 40 decreased 25 points or 0.90% and in London the FTSE 100 was down 87 points or 1.22%. Meanwhile Spain’s IBEX 35 slipped 41 points or 0.42% and the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 inched down 23 points or 0.68%.
In commodities, gold futures rose 0.06% to $1,313.10 a troy ounce while crude oil futures inched down 0.18% to $62.30 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was down 0.26% to 89.56.