NEW YORK, May 4 — Wall Street stocks tumbled early today, with tech shares especially weak, amid worries over excess equity valuations as the US trade deficit hit a new all-time high.

After a string of records in 2021, stocks are running into worries over "peak growth,” said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare, with investors anticipating an ebbing in the post-pandemic economic boom.

Still, O’Hare pointed to an expected "seesaw” action in markets, as investors will likely bargain hunt when there are pullbacks.

About 30 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.7 per cent at 33,864.77.

The broad-based S&P 500 fell 1.1 per cent to 4,147.86, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index sank 2.0 per cent to 13,617.24.

The US trade deficit rose 5.6 per cent to US$74.4 billion, seasonally adjusted, the highest ever recorded and mostly attributable to trade with China, the Commerce Department reported.

Oren Klachkin of Oxford Economic attributed the widening trade gap to "faster US growth relative to the rest of the world.” — AFP