US equity markets retreated, extending losses in the closing hour of trading although traders struggled to pinpoint a particular reason for the weakness – Dow down -308-points or -0.94%. Intel Corp surged over >5.5% in after-hours trading after the chipmaker announced aggressive plans to expand its manufacturing capacity to take back its leadership position in the industry. Newly installed Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger, who had spent decades at Intel focused on the engineering side of the business before moving onto Chief Operating Officer at EMC Corp and CEO of VMware Inc, laid out an ambitious roadmap to bounce back from recent manufacturing problems that surfaced last year. The broader S&P500 fell -0.76%, with Materials (down -2.10%) leading eight of the eleven primary sectors lower. Utilities (up +1.52%) was the leading primary sector performer. The technology-centric Nasdaq shed -1.12%. Microsoft Corp rose +0.67% following a report by Bloomberg News that the company is in discussions to purchase video game-focused chat platform Discord for more than >US$10B. The small capitalisation Russell 2000 index tumbled -3.58% to record its worst single-session performance since 25 February. Overnight marked the anniversary of the pandemic lows hit on 23 March 2020, when all of the major U.S. stock benchmarks put in their bear-market lows. In broader corporate news, Robinhood Markets Inc, the online brokerage at the heart of the historic retail trading frenzy that gripped Wall Street earlier this year, has confidentially submitted plans to regulators for a U.S. stock market listing, according to a Reuters report.