US stocks, cryptos struggle to recover from volatility

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - US stock began the day lower Tuesday as equities, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies struggled to recover from high volatility.

The Dow Jones was down 127 points to 31,394 at 9.37 a.m. EDT (1437GMT), while the S&P 500 fell 35 to 3,841 with Tesla plummeting 9.5%.

The Nasdaq shaved 353 points, or 2.6%, to 13,177 with Uber and Twitter each losing more than 4%, while Amazon and Google's parent company, Alphabet, fell more than 2% apiece.

The VIX volatility index, which increased 12.6% for three consecutive days last week, was up 6.3% Monday. The fear index was at 25.56 by jumping another 9%.

After losing 5.7% to close Monday just above $54,000, Bitcoin was down another 12% to $47,500 when markets opened.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned investors Monday about Bitcoin, calling the virtual coin an extremely inefficient way of conducting transactions and it can often be used for illicit finance.

"It is a highly speculative asset and you know I think people should be aware it can be extremely volatile and I do worry about potential losses that investors can suffer," she said.

Investors will closely follow Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's semi-annual testimony before the US Senate Banking Committee that will begin at 10 a.m. (1500GMT).