The US stock market fell sharply on Thursday

The collapse of technology companies pushed the US stock index Nasdaq lower by 3.5 percent on Thursday. It was the biggest loss of the technology index since October last year. The continued growth of US government bond yields has drained funds from the stock market and led investors to question whether the massive growth in the value of large technology companies in recent months has been exaggerated. Bond yields are rising as investors expect Washington to approve more stimuli, economic growth will pick up and inflation is likely to rise. Thursday's sell-off in the US stock market accelerated after ten-year government bond yields rose above 1.5 percent, the highest level in more than a year. The S&P 500 index fell 2.4 percent to 3,829.34 points. The Dow Jones industrial index weakened by 1.8 percent to 31,402.01 points. The technology Nasdaq lost 3.5 percent and closed at 13,119.43 points. The development of share prices of smaller companies was worse than the situation in the rest of the market. The Russell 2000 Small Business Index lost 3.7 percent to 2,200.17 points. Asian stock markets also headed down on Friday. They reacted to the sale on Wall Street, where the growth of bond yields caused the sale of shares. Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 4 percent to 28,966.01 points. The Hong Kong Hang Seng index weakened by 3.5 percent and the Chinese Shanghai Composite index lost 2.1 percent.