Wall Street falls fourth straight day as recession worries nag

Wall Street equities closed lower on Monday for a fourth straight session with Nasdaq leading declines as investors shied away from riskier bets, worried the Federal Reserve's tightening campaign could push the U.S. economy into a recession.
The three major U.S. stock indexes have been pressured since Wednesday, when Fed Chair Jerome Powell took a hawkish tone when the central bank raised interest rates. Powell promised further increases even as weak data showed signs of a weakening economy.
The S&P 500 .SPX, the Dow Jones industrials .DJI and the Nasdaq have sold off sharply for December and are on track for their biggest annual declines since the 2008 financial crisis.
U.S. Treasury yields gained as investors girded for a potential recession in 2023, forsaking stocks for safer options, according to Brian Overby, senior markets strategist at Ally.
The lack of big earnings reports or economic data on Monday sharpened investors' focus on economic fears and interest rates, according to Melissa Brown, Global Head of Applied Research at Qontigo in New York.
Market heavyweights such as $Apple (AAPL.US)$ , $Microsoft (MSFT.US)$ and $Amazon (AMZN.US)$ created some of the biggest drags on the market.
$Tesla (TSLA.US)$ was volatile with the electric carmaker falling as much as 2.8% during the session following a $Twitter (Delisted) (TWTR.US)$ poll that showed a majority of respondents want Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk to step down as CEO of the social media platform.
$Meta Platforms (META.US)$ shares fell after the European Commission said it could impose a fine of up to 10% of the tech conglomerate's annual global turnover if evidence showed an infringement of the EU's antitrust laws.
$L3Harris Technologies (LHX.US)$ lost ground after the U.S. defense contractor said it would buy hypersonic engine manufacturer Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc AJRD.N for $4.7 billion. Aerojet gained ground.
Shares of casino operators $Melco Resorts and Entertainment (MLCO.US)$, $Las Vegas Sands (LVS.US)$ , $Wynn Resorts (WYNN.US)$ fell after Macau said on Friday that six casino firms will invest around $15 billion as part of new 10-year contracts they signed to operate in the world's biggest gambling hub.