Wall Street slides on positive US economic data

Wall Street’s major indexes dropped on Thursday after fresh US economic data underlined the US economy’s strength and erased concerns over the Federal Reserve’s continued monetary policy tightening.

Losses in rate-sensitive megacap growth stocks such as Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc pulled technology and consumer discretionary shares lower.

The final estimate of third-quarter U.S. GDP revealed gross domestic product increased at a 3.2% annualized rate, above the previous estimate of 2.9%.

Meanwhile, a Labour Department report showed the number of Americans filing for state unemployment benefits increased to 216,000 last week, much below economists’ estimate of 222,000, indicating a still tight labor market.

The GDP data beat a lot of expectations. There are concerns that the economy is not giving up too easily and it’s putting up a fight that will likely require the Fed to remain hawkish and keep interest rates higher for longer.