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NEW YORK - WALL Street shares slid at the open on Tuesday after a surprisingly weak reading on US service sector activity intensified fears about a recession in the world's biggest economy.
In the first exchanges, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 165.67 points (1.31 per cent) to 12,469.49 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq shed 35.54 points (1.49 per cent) to 2,347.31.
The broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index retreated 21.43 points (1.55 per cent) to 1,359.3.
Market action came after a report from the Institute of Supply Management showed the vast services sector of the US economy contracted in January for the first time in nearly five years.
The Institute of Supply Management's index on nonmanufacturing activity slumped to 41.9 per cent in January from 54.4 per cent in December.
The report on services, which makes up the lion's share of US economic activity, is another sign of a sharp slowdown in the US economy that some analysts say means a recession is at hand.
Stephen Gallagher, economist at Societe Generale, said the ISM report 'is in recession territory'. -- AFP
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