• The Nasdaq fell 2.6% to finish Tuesday’s session at 14,507 points.
• Activision Blizzard soars 26% after Microsoft agreed to buy it for US$68.7bn.
• Moderna tumbled 8.8% despite announcing Omicron-specific data release date.

The US markets tumbled on the first trading day of the week as investors’ fears of the Feds hiking interest rates aggressively sent stocks into a freefall. Investors also grappled with earnings season and rising Treasury bond yields to start the shortened trading week.

The Dow Jones fell 1.51% to finish the trading day down 543 points to close at 35,368 points.

The tech heavy NASDAQ fell 2.6% to finish the trading day down 387 points to close at 14,507 points.

One bitcoin is worth US$42,368 going into the Asian trading day.

The Australian dollar is firm against the major currencies and is buying 71.85 US cents.

Activision Blizzard shares soared 25.88% on Tuesday after the video game maker announced it is being acquired by Microsoft for US$68.7bn in the biggest gaming deal in history. The all-cash deal will see Microsoft buy Activision for US$95/share and marry Activision Blizzard’s popular Call of Duty franchise with Microsoft’s Halo and Gears of War titles.

Shares in biotech company Moderna tanked 8.8% on Tuesday despite the vaccine maker announcing it expects to be able to share data from an Omicron-specific vaccine with regulators in March. Investors also sold out of vaccine-maker stocks broadly after a fourth dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine showed no prevention of infection by the Omicron variant, in an Israeli study.

And Aldi has opened its first till-free supermarket in London that uses the Aldi Shop&Go app to charge customers for their purchases once they leave the store.