May 7, 2019

Dow has worst day in 4 months amid China trade war escalation

Courtenay Brown

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 472 points on Tuesday, while the S&P 500 fell 1.6% and the Nasdaq dropped 1.9%. The tech and industrial sectors saw the biggest losses.

Source: Factset.

The big picture: The drop comes two days after President Trump threatened to escalate the trade war and one day after the administration confirmed higher tariffs on Chinese imports would take effect later this week. The S&P 500 is 2% below the all-time closing high seen last week. It's 1.8% higher than where it was when the trade war began in early 2018.

Go deeper

Fadel Allassan

House Democrats lose appeal to force McGahn testimony

Photo: Alex Wong / Staff

Democrats in the House lost an appeal to force former White House counsel Don McGahn to comply with a subpoena, Politico was the first to report.

Why it matters: McGahn was seen as a crucial witness in the House investigation into whether President Trump tried to obstruct the Mueller inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election . The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled 2-1 on Friday that it did not have the authority to resolve the dispute between the executive and legislative branches.

Go deeperArrowUpdated 2 mins ago - Politics & Policy
Axios

Coronavirus updates: Market ends worst week since financial crisis

Data: The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins, the CDC, and China's Health Ministry. Note: China numbers are for the mainland only and U.S. numbers include repatriated citizens.

The stock market ended its worst week since the financial crisis, prompting the Fed to release a statement. Meanwhile, the WHO warned that countries are losing their chance to contain the novel coronavirus and raised its global risk assessment to "very high" Friday.

The big picture: COVID-19 has killed more than 2,860 people and infected about 83,800 others in almost 60 countries and territories outside the epicenter in mainland China. The number of new cases reported outside China now exceed those inside the country.

Go deeperArrowUpdated 30 mins ago - Health
Axios

Trump again nominates Rep. John Ratcliffe for intelligence chief

Ratcliffe at CPAC on Feb. 27. Photo: Michael Brochstein/Echoes Wire/Barcroft Media via Getty Images

President Trump nominated Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) as Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in a tweet on Friday.

Catch up quick: Ratcliffe would eventually replace Richard Grenell, a staunch defender of Trump and former U.S. ambassador to Germany who was installed as the acting DNI only a few weeks ago. Grenell would have had to leave the post on March 11 unless Trump formally nominated someone else to oversee the U.S. intelligence community, the New York Times reports.

Go deeper: Trump to install loyalist Ric Grenell as acting intelligence chief

Keep ReadingArrow34 mins ago - Politics & Policy