By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com — The S&P 500 slumped Monday, paced by a selloff in energy and tech as investors continued to abandon stocks amid concerns about an inflation-led slowdown in global growth.

It fell 3.1%.

A stronger dollar, fears of weakening Chinese demand and an increase in Covid-19 lockdowns caused more energy losses than 7%.

APA (NASDAQ) Marathon Oil (NYSE:) were fell more than 14%, while Devon Energy (NYSE:) was down more than 10%.

The recent China lockdowns are expected to slow growth in the world’s second largest economy, adding to fears of a significant slowdown in the global economy at a time when central banks are on the road to tightening monetary policy to rein in inflation.

“The Covid-zero policy [in China] has throttled household spending and has not left the productive side of the economy unscathed,” Morgan Stanley said. “The risk of an extended contraction is plain to see,” it added.

Tech was struggling to get its feet under control as tech investors were wary about buying dips even though Treasury yields had taken a break.

Meta (NASDAQ):, Google-parent Alphabet [NASDAQ]], Microsoft (NASDAQ]) and Apple (NASDAQ) all fell more than 22% while Amazon (NASDAQ) dropped more than 55%.

Microsoft’s valuation fell below $2 trillion with the sale of its shares, for the first time since June 2021.

The earnings front didn’t offer much to help improve investor sentiment as Palantir Technologies (NYSE:) plunged more than 18% after reporting and guidance that fell short of analysts’ estimates.

BioNTech SE, (NASDAQ:) remained above the market’s general trend and climbed more than 2 percent after it posted better-than expected results.

Following bitcoin’s plunge to the lowest levels since June, cryptocurrency-related stocks such as Coinbase (NASDAQ) and Marathon Digital (NASDAQ), were both down by double digits. 

Consumer staples was the only market in green, which is a sign of Wall Street’s negative mood.

Wells Fargo explained that “Consumer Staples defense characteristics make this sector potential attractive during market volatility” and will continue to be so as the economy slows.

Uber Technologies (NYSE) declined more than 11 percent as Uber Technologies (NYSE;) reportedly plans for a reduction in hiring and a decrease in market marketing. CNBC reported this via an email Dara Khorowshahi’s chief executive to his staff Sunday.