By Jay Jackson, Arab Herald
12 Oct 2018, 13:24 GMT+10
NEW YORK, New York - It was a bloodbath on global stock markets on Thursday, following on from Wednesday's rout.
The Dow Jones on Thursday, which had lost more than 800 points on Wednesday, shed another 545.91 points or 2.13%to close a fraction above the 25,000 handle at 25,052.83.
The Dow is now down 1,900 points, around 7%, after hitting a record high of 26,951 on October 3rd.
The Standard and Poor's 500 lost 57.31 points or 2.06% on Thursday to close at 2,728.37.
Gold rose 2% on Thursday, however the U.S. dollar weakened.
U.S. stock futures spiked up 0.6% in early Asian trading on Friday. The U.S. Treasury Department indicated it would not call China a currency manipulator in its upcoming report, which was considered positive given that much of the volatility in stocks has coincided with moves on the China-U.S. trade tariffs front.
Another concern for investors has been U.S. interest rates which have been on the rise, much to the chagrin of President Donald Trump.
Folks are re-rating whether the Fed is going to tighten too much, I think thats the fear, Michael Arone, chief investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors in Boston told Bloomberg. "Even so, nothings really changed in terms of the Feds path, and I think the economy continues to be quite strong, Arone said.
Investors have had a violent overreaction, he added.
The sudden, and explosive fall in stocks since reaching record highs only last week has caught most by surprise, but not all.
The U.S. share market is now about 7% off of its 100-day high, but this is far from a rare occurrence historically. Indeed, history is littered with over 5%-ish type selloffs in the midst of economic expansions, economists at RBC Capital Markets were quoted by Reuters Thomson as saying in a report.
Technology stocks, which bore the brunt of the plunge on Wednesday, were less out-of-favour on Thursday. The benchmark Nasdaq Composite index was down 92.99points or 1.25% at 7,329.06. The index had fallen more than 4% on Wednesday.
China on Friday was scheduled to release its latest trade balance numbers. The country's overall trade surplus for September is expected to decline to $19.40 billion, compared to the previous month's reading of $27.89 billion.
Get a daily dose of Arab Herald news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Arab Herald.
More InformationLagos [Nigeria], Feb 18 (ANI): At least nine people died after Boko Haram militants launched a major attack on a ...
The Taliban have called off a planned round of peace talks in Pakistan, saying that most of the members of ...
According to Iranian state media, President Hassan Rohani has inaugurated a new domestically built submarine armed with cruise missiles, amid ...
Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi called his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif on Sunday to strongly condemn and offer ...
The family of a British teenager who ran away to join the Islamic State group says she has given birth ...
Iran's parliament speaker has said that an attack that killed 27 members of Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) ...
Diehard jihadists have blocked roads out of the last scrap of their Islamic State group "caliphate" in Syria, US-backed forces ...
NEW YORK, New York - The bombing of a bus in southeast Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan Province this week that killed 27 ...
WARSAW, Poland - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence zeroed in on Iran on Thursday when he addressed Polish Prime Minister Mateusz ...
Kabul [Afghanistan], Feb 18 (ANI): Negotiations between US officials and Taliban members which were supposed to be held in Islamabad ...
The Taliban have called off a planned round of peace talks in Pakistan, saying that most of the members of ...
Islamabad [Pakistan], Feb 18 (ANI): Saudi Arabia on Sunday signed eight agreements amounting up to USD 20 billion agreement to ...
DUBLIN, Ireland - Following its successful acquisition of Hollywood-based Blindlight, Irish video-gaming company Keywords Studios has now announced its latest accomplishment. Keywords r ...
Read More