Published: 22 Jun 2022 17:57 GMT

The New York Stock Exchange opened lower on Wednesday amid a sharp drop in oil prices that affected the energy sector. The technology sector also showed a downward trend, although it later recovered.

At the opening of Wall Street, the S&P 500 index gave up 0.9 % and the technology Nasdaq contracted by 0.7 %, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.9 %. Later in the day, they began to rebound, gaining 0.4 %, 0.9 % and 0.2 %, respectively.

According to Bloomberg’s analysis of the data, the S&P 500 is now poised to suffer its worst first half of the year since Richard Nixon’s presidency (1969-1974). Since the start of the year, the index has already lost 21% with seven days left in June.

The last time the index suffered such a drastic drop was during the first six months of 1970. Economists now attribute the drop to a mix of factors, such as high inflation and the Federal Reserve’s hard line, which are expected to plunge the U.S. economy into recession.