If you listened to Friday’s podcast, I mentioned that I thought I would probably be doing a lot of podcasts this week. I did one yesterday, and I am doing another one today because my feeling about the stock market was confirmed today with an 831 point rout in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, down 3.15%. This is the biggest decline that the Dow has had since that 1000+ point drop that we had in February. I think it is maybe the third biggest down day ever, point-wise. Percentage-wise it’s not even close.
NASDAQ Down Over 4%-
The DJIA actually did a lot better than a lot of the other averages. The Dow Jones transports were down just over 4%; 445 points. the NASDAQ was down over 4% as well – 315 points. Weakness across the board in the stock market today. And it’s not just the homebuilders and the autos. I’ve been talking about those sectors as leading indicators and, yes, many of those stocks made new 52-week lows today as well. But they were not the worst performers on the day.
Financials Helped Lead the Declines-
The financials were helping to lead the decline. Again we have Morgan Stanley at a new 52-week low, down 3.3%. Goldman Sachs down 3.6%, a new 52-week low. But really, the biggest losers on the day were the tech stocks. These have been the stand-outs. This is what has been holding up the market – the FAANG stocks, all of these technology infotech stocks – and a lot of people were actually describing them irrationally as a “safe havens”. I couldn’t believe it when people were saying that tech stocks were the new “safe havens”. When you hear stuff like that, you know you’re close to the end.