The stock exchanges in New York opened on Thursday with significant price losses. As in Europe, investors on Wall Street are concerned that the economic recovery from the corona crisis is being undermined by the rapid spread of the contagious Delta variant.
Airlines and cruise lines, among others, were in the red because the Delta variant can cause renewed travel restrictions. In addition, disappointing figures on the US labour market were also released.
Airlines such as Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and American Airlines lost up to 2.3 percent. Cruise providers Carnival, Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean fell to 3.6 percent, and online booking sites Expedia and Booking.com fell to nearly 4 percent.
The banking sector also struggled due to uncertainty about the economic recovery. For example, large banks such as Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo recorded minuses of up to 2.3 percent.
The leading Dow-Jones index was 1.1 percent lower shortly after opening at 34,315 points. The broad S&P 500 fell 1.2 percent to 4304 points, and the technology gauge Nasdaq lost 1.5 percent to 14,448 points.
The US Department of Labor announced that the number of new jobless claims rose slightly last week to 373,000. Economists had expected a drop to 350,000 unemployment benefits.
New York-listed Chinese taxi app Didi Global continued its heavy downturn of recent days with a 6 percent loss. Chinese authorities are becoming increasingly strict with technology companies such as Didi, making investors nervous. Online retailer Alibaba had to surrender more than 3 percent.