US equity markets relinquished earlier session gains to settle lower, with technology stocks under fresh pressure despite some respite from rising US Treasury yields - Dow down -340-points or -0.96%, with economic bellwether Caterpillar Inc (down -3.10%) and Boeing Co (-3.52%) among the key drags on the index. Goldman Sachs Group Inc fell a further -2.0% (following a -6.97% drop in the previous session) after reporting a fall in fourth-quarter profit due to weak trading activity a day earlier. The broader S&P500 shed -0.97%, with Consumer Discretionary (down 1.81%), Financials (-1.65%), Information Technology (-1.37%), Real Estate (1.21%) and Industrials (-1.10%) all dropping over >1% to lead nine of the eleven primary sectors lower. The more defensive Consumer Staples (up +0.68%) and Utilities (+0.46%) sectors were the only primary sectors to close higher, The Nasdaq lost -1.15% to settle ~10.7% below its most recent record closing high in November 2021 and hence pushing the technology centric index into official correction territory. It marked the Nasdaq’s first close in correction territory since March last year and its 66th correction since 1971. The small capitalisation Russell 2000 fell -1.49% to a 52-week low of 2,062.78.