Dow plunges 3,000 points as Fed intervention does little to subdue Wall Street's distress
Source: Washington Post
Wall Street cannot be calmed when it comes to the coronavirus. Government intervention and assurances, from a $50 billion spending package to combat the outbreak in the U.S. to directives from President Trump to buy the dip have done little to subdue Wall Streets distress. Even the Federal Reserve taking its most drastic steps to shore up the economy since the 2008 financial crisis was met with outsized volatility, amid worries that all the tools in the governments belt would not be enough to keep the U.S. economy from toppling into a recession.
The jaw-dropping swings of recent weeks have erased most Wall Streets gains since Trumps 2016 election, and the VIX volatility index has reached its third-highest level ever. All major U.S. indices are now in a bear market, with the Standard & Poors 500 and Nasdaq shredding more than 25 percent off their February highs, and the Dow Jones industrial average down 28 percent.
Panic reached a fever-pitch Monday morning as investors reacted to the Feds plan to slash interest rates to zero, buy $700 billion in government bonds and mortgage-backed securities and revive a crisis-era quantitative easing program. The S&P 500 tumbled more than 8 percent less than a minute into the session, triggering the fourth forced halt to trading in two weeks. The Dow plunged more than 2,250 points,
There was some bounce back as the day progressed, but it evaporated as the closing bell neared. The Dow cratered nearly 3,000 points and nearly 13 percent. The S&P 500 plunged nearly 12 percent and tech-heavy Nasdaq skidded 12.3 percent.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/03/16/stocks-markets-today-coronavirus/
Original headline: Stocks tank across the board as Fed intervention does little to subdue Wall Street's distress
yaesu
(8,020 posts)I revised the numbers in title to match the closing. 20,186.52 ?2,999.10 (12.94%)
BumRushDaShow
(129,442 posts)I have been watching the market all day (in a tab) - https://markets.businessinsider.com/index/realtime-chart/dow_jones
msongs
(67,441 posts)mahatmakanejeeves
(57,600 posts)AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)Some downward pressure is actually responsible and healthy. Frantic attempts to intervene by the Fed and promises of aid by Congress are actually going to exacerbate the panic.
Warpy
(111,339 posts)With oil prices cratering, outfits like mutual funds and hedge funds started it off by trying to unload their energy stocks before the other guys did, which of course never really works all that well.
The Fed went into panic mode and with interest rates at 0, they are out of tricks and everybody knows it.
This is likely to seesaw back and forth a lot as bargain hunters swoop in, but the overall trend will be down for the next couple of weeks, at least.
Small investors are not the reason for this. Little fish don't stand to lose millions if their Exxon stock goes down a buck a share and they're mostly staying where they are and watching the carnage as what started in energy stocks has spread to everything else.
So put your blame where it belongs, on Putin and Mohammad bin Salman and on all the funds who pushed the panic button instead of just realizing price wars usually don't last more than a month and riding it all out.
Put your blame on an administration that wasted trillions on a tax cur nobody needed in order to hyper inflate the stock market so they had boasting rights to a great economy while people slowly starved and did without medical care.
Don't blame stockholders across the board because those 401K plans have somehow crashed a great economy. They didn't.
MoonlitKnight
(1,584 posts)The oil price war is having a huge impact.
PatSeg
(47,586 posts)That is worse than I could ever have imagined.
TheFourthMind
(343 posts)Great again really contradicts his love for the not-so-great.
cstanleytech
(26,319 posts)of this coronavirus outbreak.
turbinetree
(24,720 posts)plus the 45+ years of libertarian mantra...................
beastie boy
(9,421 posts)Four years of Obama's coattails down the shitter, and it ain't over yet...
mahatmakanejeeves
(57,600 posts)Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(108,192 posts)Second time it's done that under Trump. He keeps setting records.
bucolic_frolic
(43,281 posts)Probably 3x Ultra short ETF's, optioned, 30-to-1 leverage
maddogesq
(1,245 posts)And his fund buddies getting hot short tips from Larry the Cud prior to pressers or WH announcements.
Lucky Luciano
(11,258 posts)Inter meeting rate cuts of 150 bps will cause some ripples had they been purchased before March 3rd for the March 2020 contract. Trading the mid curves are interesting too, but they expired Friday. Or note the 30y bond issued Feb 15 reached an intraday high of 135 a few days ago...so ultra long bond call options could have been amusing too for someone with prior knowledge of surprise rate cuts.
duforsure
(11,885 posts)And trump spoke again.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)to the low now of 20,355, in 34 days.
He's gone from killing his various businesses to killing our national budget and now taking out investors in the market.
and yet, he gets up every morning and somehow makes things even worse than the day before..
I'm stunned. I wander thru the house every day going thru a lifetime's worth of WTF??????
wolfie001
(2,265 posts)bucolic_frolic
(43,281 posts)I have no worries, already in the crater and it's not THAT bad. I'd call it bomb-proof now!
TomCADem
(17,390 posts)What is the FED going to do, since they are now at zero.
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)Which, certain parties are actually champing at the bit to do so, for obvious reasons that will not benefit 99.9% of the country.
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)It's going to go a lot lower. Frantic attempts to prop it up don't change the fundamentals, any more than the age old 'pushing string' analogy.
They've actually made it worse by attempting to intervene. Injections of capital and rate adjustments must be timed correctly, not 'OH GOD FED DO SOMETHING MY POLL NUMBERS SUCK'. They're just stacking debt on top of debt, hoping it'll raise some 'irrational exuberance'. The fundamentals don't warrant it. Fuck they intervened twice over the weekend. Expecting instant relief. What do they think is coming in the NEXT 2-8 weeks?
Nothing is solved, so it's going to get worse. And they are AGGRESSIVELY making it worse, and depleting all tools that could be used to right the ship in 2-3 months when it could have some positive effect.
Bengus81
(6,932 posts)Last edited Mon Mar 16, 2020, 06:12 PM - Edit history (1)
since Don the CON took office. Remember this number: 19,827
That's when your last cent under Trump disappears--a mere 361 points. Or Tuesday/Wednesday
Google's price per share has been rolled back to June 2019. One of my favorite stocks from way back is PPG--my dad worked for them for decades before retiring in 1988. That stock has taken a haircut all that way back into Sept 2013.
Atta boy Trump.
IronLionZion
(45,528 posts)The Fed has fired all it has into the markets now. This country's priorities are so bad that we are witnessing structural damage.
The stock market is the tip of the iceberg. Companies depending on travel, entertainment, events, etc. are laying off their employees.
The restaurant/bar/club industry is next with the lockdowns.
The retail industry failures are accelerating hard as people stop going to shops.
Supply lines in Asia are already badly broken for making many goods, including important things like medicines and medical supplies/ equipment.
We're going to wish China didn't make all our stuff. Their authoritarian measures will show them recovering from this pandemic before the US does. And Trump's antagonizing personality is not going to win any sympathy or support from our allies.
BumRushDaShow
(129,442 posts)IronLionZion
(45,528 posts)Yes I know our national values are profit over people. But there should be some incentive to have our own country make critical things we need instead of sourcing from the lowest cost country, which will almost always be China.
BumRushDaShow
(129,442 posts)And after 9/11, there was supposed to be a "National Stockpile" at various locations around the country that could be moved out on 18-wheelers as needed for emergencies/disasters. Am wondering what happened with that?
Website for that - https://www.phe.gov/about/sns/Pages/default.aspx
I guess the answer to my question is here -
By Beth Reinhard and Emma Brown
March 10, 2020 at 4:57 p.m. EDT
The H1N1 influenza pandemic of 2009 triggered the largest deployment in U.S. history of the Strategic National Stockpile, the federal governments last-resort cache of drugs and medical supplies. The stockpile distributed 85 million N95 respirators fitted face masks that block most airborne particles along with millions of other masks, gowns and gloves.
The gear to protect medical personnel came from multibillion dollar emergency funding authorized by Congress in 2007 and 2009, leading to calls for the government to better prepare for the next outbreak. The trade group for manufacturers of personal protective equipment in mid-2009 urged immediate action to restock N95 masks. The International Safety Equipment Association warned of significant shortages if another pandemic caused demand for masks to surge.
A nonprofit representing public health agencies, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), echoed industrys appeal in a 2010 report funded by the federal government, recommending the repository of masks be replenished for future events. But the stockpiles reserves were not significantly restored after the 2009 pandemic, in the view of industry and public health experts. With a limited budget of about $600 million annually, officials in charge of the stockpile focused on what they say was a more pressing priority: lifesaving drugs and equipment for diseases and disasters that emerged before the new coronavirus, which has no vaccine or specific anti-viral treatment.
In hindsight, it appears to be shortsighted, said Gerrit Bakker, ASTHO senior director of public health preparedness. Its an issue of, Will there be any (masks) left when they get to me? And if the stockpile wont have enough for my state, what am I going to do? The limitations of the stockpile valued at $7 billion reflect challenges in what many experts say is an underfunded public health system that leans toward smaller inventories to hold down costs and looks to fast-moving private supply chain when crises emerge. Public health and emergency preparedness officials also say the stockpiles budget lags the expanding threats of the past two decades from terrorist attacks, to natural disasters to deadly infectious diseases.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/face-masks-in-national-stockpile-have-not-been-substantially-replenished-since-2009/2020/03/10/57e57316-60c9-11ea-8baf-519cedb6ccd9_story.html
empedocles
(15,751 posts)[Just yesterday trump was still 'downplaying'
FloridaBlues
(4,008 posts)PubliusEnigma
(1,583 posts)olddad65
(599 posts)This is no longer a democracy. He can cancel the election.
PubliusEnigma
(1,583 posts)Brother Buzz
(36,463 posts)when a jaw dropping thousand point drop was heady stuff?
MoonlitKnight
(1,584 posts)If it blows past that we have a ways to go.