US: Nasdaq loses 2% with tech sell-off

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - The Nasdaq closed lower on Wednesday with a sell-off in technology stocks.

The tech-heavy index lost 265 points to end the day at 12,961, with GameStop plummeting 33% and AMC Entertainment sliding 15%.

The two companies were popular in January when a group of small investors coordinated on social media platform Reddit under the WallStreetBets forum to buy and hold shares, driving stock prices higher.

Zoom Video was down 7% at the final bell, while Airbnb, Tesla and Blackberry all shed more than 4%.

The Dow was flat at 32,420 and the S&P 500 was down 20 to 3,889 with Tesla losing 4.8%.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced it started to implement the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act, which includes removing Chinese companies from US stock exchanges.

Chinese firms are now facing being delisted from US exchanges if they do not comply with American auditing standards and fail to disclose information amid their affiliations with the Chinese government, as part of the Act that was signed by former President Donald Trump in December.