Wall St. calm comes to a halt

S& P’s 1.2% decline is biggest of year; Dow drops 238 points

Wall Street finally got what it has been fearing: a big down day in the stock market.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index suffered its worst day of the year Tuesday. It closed down more than 1% for the first time since Oct. 11, or 110 trading sessions, ending its longest streak of calm since 1995, according to data compiled by Ryan Detrick, senior market strategist at LPL Financial. It fell 29.45 points, or 1.24%, to close at 2344.02, lowering its gain for the year to 4.7%. The Dow Jones industrial average also fell — sliding nearly 238 points, its biggest oneday point and percentage loss since Sept. 13.

Wall Street pros say the market, which has enjoyed a virtually uninterrupted rise and a nearly 10% gain since President Trump’s election win in November, was dragged down in part by fears the president’s economic agenda was getting bogged down in politics. Traders worry that the fight to get a Republican health care bill through Congress will delay other planks of Trump’s economic agenda, such as cutting corporate taxes and passing an infrastructure spending bill.

“There are some concerns over the ability of the Trump administration to push its growth- oriented initiatives while bogged down on health care,” says Bill Hornbarger, chief investment officer at Moneta Group. Stocks that have performed well in the “Trump rally,” such as those of banks and small companies, fell sharply Tuesday. The Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF dropped nearly 3% and the Russell 2000 small- company stock index declined 2.6%.

The stock market also succumbed to the weight of expensive stock prices, as well as fresh concerns that the hopedfor economic rebound might not be as robust as forecast.

BRYAN R. SMITH, AFP/ GETTY IMAGES Wall Street traders have seen the market rise nearly 10% since the election.