Stock Market Plunges 4% Amid Recession Fears

Investors fear the US is headed toward recession
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 5, 2024 8:38 AM CDT
Stock Market Sinks 4% Amid Recession Fears
Michael Pistillo works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in this file photo.   (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

Don't peek at the 401(k) on Monday. To say the stock market opened in negative territory would be an understatement. In the opening minutes after the opening bell, the benchmark S&P 500 fell 4%; the Dow plunged more than 1,100 points, or nearly 3%; and the tech-focused Nasdaq fell more than 5%. The steep declines follow similarly bleak days in markets overseas—particularly in Japan—amid rising fears of a US recession.

  • Of note, Nvidia was down 9%, Apple 8% (after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway slashed its stake in half), Tesla 7%, Broadcom 9%, and Super Micro Computer 9%, per CNBC.
  • Cryptocurrency continued its own slide, with bitcoin falling below $50,000 for the first time since February.
  • Investors fled to the safer haven of bonds, pushing US Treasury yields sharply lower, per the Wall Street Journal.

"It's painful," Victoria Greene of G Squared Private Wealth tells CNBC. "I think there's a lot being absorbed that happened over the weekend between Berkshire cutting Apple. ... You had the Japan sell-off. ... You have the yen spike. ...You have a lot of bad news getting priced in." She called it "a pullback, a correction." (More stock market stories.)

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