People walk by the New York Stock Exchange earlier this month. Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Monday interrupted a stretch of calm amid the historic stock market boom underway since March 2020.
Driving the news: Jitters were apparent nearly everywhere.
- Stocks swung at home: The Dow fell as much as 970 points, before rallying back 370 points. And the S&P finished 4% below its highest level ever.
- Globally: Hong Kong stocks fell to the lowest point in nearly a year (other Asian markets were closed). Europe slumped too.
- And then there’s Bitcoin. Prices fell as much as 10%.
One trigger: Massive China-based property firm Evergrande likely can’t make payments on its huge debt pile due this week.
- It’s unclear how — or if — a default reverberates through the financial system.
Add it to the other factors analysts have been warning about during a historically bad month for the markets: the debt ceiling and spending impasse, the Fed timeline to ease pandemic-era support, and the Delta variant.
What they’re saying: “This market has experienced almost no downside volatility for a long time, and a pullback was long overdue,” says David Bahnsen of wealth management firm The Bahnsen Group.
- A sign of the times: Some saw an opening, as social media suggested. “#BuyTheDip” was trending briefly on Twitter.