Stocks fell more than 4% on Thursday, extending the market’s worst week since the financial crisis in 2008 following a spike in coronavirus cases around the world.
The big picture: All three indices are in correction, down over 10% from recent record-highs, amid a global market rout. It’s the S&P 500’s quickest decline into correction territory in the index’s history, per Deutsche Bank. View the post here.
The financial world is realizing how different this is from a trade war or other recent economic hiccups.For weeks, there has been a strange divergence among those trying to predict what coronavirus might mean for financial markets and the world economy.
People in the trenches of global commerce — supply chain managers, travel industry experts, employers large and small — warned of substantial disruptions to their businesses. And public health authorities feared that the disease could spread far beyond Wuhan in China.
Yet financial markets and most economic forecasters projected the virus outbreak wouldn’t do much harm to the economy and corporate profits — at the least, nothing that an interest-rate cut or two from the Federal Reserve couldn’t fix. The S&P 500 hit a new high last Wednesday. Continue reading.
U.S. markets fell sharply Thursday after the first coronavirus case in the United States that could not be linked to foreign travel was confirmed.
The state of California is calling the case, first reported by The Washington Post, its first instance of community transmission. The hospital is monitoring the health of scores of staff members who may have come in contact with the patient.
The rapid spread of the novel coronavirus also raised the specter of a global pandemic as governments ramped up their emergency responses and international financial markets slumped again Thursday, despite signs that the outbreak may be easing in China. Continue reading.
In a blunt and uncharacteristically sarcastic broadside aimed at Donald Trump’s administration, an obviously furious editorial board of the conservative Wall Street Journal trashed adviser Peter Navarro for being the driving force behind policies that appear to be driving the entire world’s economy into recession.
With the market plummeting and the president trying to blame the Fed for the crashing economy, the editors of the Journal said the source of the economic chaos can be found in the White House.
“After we warned last week that U.S. trade policy was courting recession, White House aide Peter Navarro took to Fox Business to denounce us for sounding like The People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist propaganda arm,” the editorial began before snarling, “That was novel as criticisms of these columns go, but perhaps Mr. Navarro would care to comment again after Wednesday’s recession warning from the bond and equity markets? Are they Commies too?”
View the complete August 15 article by Tom Boggioni from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.
Fears that a recession could hit the U.S. next year are growing on Wall Street, creating a potential headache for President Trump as he seeks to highlight the economy in his bid for a second term.
Economists at Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Moody’s Analytics in the past few days all raised concerns that a recession between now and next year’s elections is becoming more likely. And they all pointed the finger of blame at Trump’s trade policy.
“I think recession is increasingly likely,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said on Monday. “I’d put the odds at just over even for a recession between now and the end of 2020, assuming the president follows through on his tariff threats.”
View the complete August 13 article by Niv Ellis on The Hill website here.
Bond yields plunge, signaling investor flight to safety as they worry that a record stock run may be nearing its end.Stocks continued their August swoon Monday on fears that Hong Kong protests, falling worldwide bond yields and the ongoing U.S.-China trade dispute could lead to a global recession.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 462 points before the blue chips clawed some of that back to finish down about 390 points at 25,898, about a 1.5 percent drop. Financial services was among the hardest-hit Dow sectors, with Goldman Sachs Group off 2.6 percent. Pfizer, United Technologies and Caterpillar were also big drags. Only drug giant Merck stayed slightly above water.
The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index finished down 36 points at 2,882, a 1.2 percent drop. The technology-laden Nasdaq composite index fell about 95 points on the day to close at 7,863, or 1.2 percent.
View the complete August 12 article by Thomas Heath on The Washington Post website here.
Economic analysts were spooked Monday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 800 points and other key stock indices plunged in the worst fall of 2019. The drop came amid the turmoil of President Donald Trump’s ramped-up trade war with China.
China’s currency dropped to the lowest point in a decade, the Associated Press reported, following Trump’s announcement last week that he would move forward with a new round of tariffs.
Bloomberg reported in a story headlined “Yield Curve Blares Loudest U.S. Recession Warning Since 2007″:
View the complete August 5 article by Cody Fenwick on the AlterNet website here.
Trump announced new tariffs on goods from China on Thursday afternoon and sent the stock market tumbling.
At 1:25 p.m. Eastern time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) stood at 27,121. At 1:26 p.m., Trump announced on Twitter “the U.S. will start, on September 1st, putting a small additional Tariff of 10% on the remaining 300 Billion Dollars of goods and products coming from China into our Country.”
By 1:50 p.m., the Dow plunged more than 350 points to 26,735.
By 2:25 p.m., an hour after Trump’s announcement, the Dow dropped even more, to 26,680, or 441 points lower.
View the complete August 1 article by Dan Desai Martin on the National Memo website here.
After President Trump declared he wouldn’t sign a funding bill without more border wall money, the House passed a bill that has slim chances of Senate approval. (Reuters)
President Trump began Thursday under siege, listening to howls of indignation from conservatives over his border wall and thrusting the government toward a shutdown. He ended it by announcing the exit of the man U.S. allies see as the last guardrail against the president’s erratic behavior: Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, whose resignation letter was a scathing rebuke of Trump’s worldview.
At perhaps the most fragile moment of his presidency — and vulnerable to convulsions on the political right — Trump single-handedly propelled the U.S. government into crisis and sent markets tumbling with his gambits this week to salvage signature campaign promises.
The president’s decisions and conduct have led to a fracturing of Trump’s coalition. Hawks condemned his sudden decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria. Conservatives called him a “gutless president” and questioned whether he would ever build a wall. Political friends began privately questioning whether Trump needed to be reined in.
The Dow Jones industrial average plunged more than 500 points on Thursday, the first day of trading after U.S. authorities secured the arrest of a Chinese technology company executive, fueling fears that the trade war with China is heating up.
News broke late Wednesday that Canadian law enforcement had arrested Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies, a major Chinese tech firm that has been linked to the Chinese military.
U.S. officials have requested her extradition, citing a suspected sanctions violation.
View the complete December 6 article by Alexander Bolton on The Hill website here.
