May 29, 2018

Stocks sink on trade war and Italy worries

The Dow Jones Industrial Average today closed down 392 points, or 1.58%, after having at one point been down more than 500 points.

What happened? Investors got spooked by political uncertainty in Italy and a White House announcement that it again plans to implement tariffs on Chinese goods.

The Dow is down for the year.
The Nasdaq and S&P 500 also were off, 0.5% and 1.16% respectively.
The VIX index of volatility moved more than 5 points for the fifth time in 2018. It had only done so a total of six times between 2012 and 2017.
The day's top gainer, by percentage, was Chinese Internet company Momo, which reported better-than-expected earnings. The biggest loser was Brazilian e-commerce company PagSeguro, which reports earnings today after the close.