Billionaire investor Carl Icahn said on CNBC Tuesday that the stock market is "way over leveraged" and will one day "implode" because of it.
Why it matters: Markets plunged more than 500 points on Tuesday after open, following a massive drop on Monday. Icahn said he doesn't believe "this is the explosive time" for the stock market, however its turbulent state is a sign of "things to come."
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said Tuesday that the White House is "monitoring the situation" after markets fell sharply on Monday.
"The markets look like they're functioning normally in terms of liquidity and other things ... The fundamental economics are very strong. The economy is doing very well. Tax reform is clearly helping earnings a lot."
— Mnuchin to House lawmakers at a hearing on financial stability.
The backdrop: The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 1,175 points Monday — the largest one-day point decline in history. And global markets took a beating too. Tuesday morning, the DJIA opened 300 points down and continues to be volatile.
Credit Suisse announced the last day of trading for volatility-related security XIV would be Feb. 20, reports CNBC. Trading was halted Tuesday morning after the security plunged 85% in aftermarket hours.
Why it matters: Near-record volatility can have implications far beyond what happens to individual stocks, wiping out investments that had been viewed as safe just days ago.
Grocery giant Kroger has agreed to sell its 784 convenience stores, including brands like Kwik Shops, to UK-based EG Group, whose backers include TD Capital, for $2.15 billion.
Why it matters: This is part of a broader Kroger revamp initiative to fend off growing rivals like Walmart and Amazon/Whole Foods, and comes shortly after reports that it could be working on some sort of partnership with Alibaba.
Slack today will announce its first-ever chief financial officer: Allen Shim, who had been serving as the company's senior VP of finance and operations. Shim has been with Slack almost since its founding (employee #20), and has former Wall Street experience as an equity research analyst with both Sanford C. Bernstein and Citigroup.
Why it matters: This comes on top of Slack's addition of Sarah Friar last year as its first independent board member, and reads like the sort of internal professionalization that can set up an IPO.
The U.S. stock market is all over the place today after yesterday's historic drop. Markets opened down today, plunging more than 500 points after open before recovering to more than 300 points above open. The market has suffered major losses during the last two days of trading.
President Trump — who made what many White House veterans considered the rookie mistake of repeatedly boasting about the peppy stock market — now owns the largest-ever single-day point plunge for the Dow Jones Industrial Average (and worst percentage drop — 4.1% — for the S&P in more than six years).
