Wall Street Slides on Concern Over Weak Retail Data, Delta Spread

A man watches an electric board showing the Nikkei index outside a brokerage at a business district in Tokyo, Japan, on June 21, 2021. Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

WASHINGTON/LONDON—Global share markets stumbled on Tuesday, rattled by disappointing U.S. retail sales data and a surge in COVID-19 infections worldwide driven by the Delta variant.

Wall Street opened sharply lower as investors digested data showing U.S. retail sales fell more than expected in July, after global shares slid amid fears of stricter rules on the internet sector coming out of China.