Fears of stall in China zap U. S. stocks again
NEW YORK — Stocks plunged again Tuesday, continuing a rocky ride for Wall Street, after an economic report out of China stoked fears that the world’s secondlargest economy is continuing to slow.
The sell- off adds to what has been a difficult few weeks for U. S. and international markets. U. S. stocks just ended their worst month in more than three years. Tuesday’s drop also dashed hopes that, after some relatively calm trading Friday and Monday, the stock market’s wild swings were ending.
“You rarely get a V- shaped bottom,” said John De Clue, chief investment officer for the private client reserve of U. S. Bank. “You usually bounce around for a while.”
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 469.68 points, or 2.8 percent, to 16,058.35. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 58.33 points, or 3 percent, to 1,913.85, and the Nasdaq composite fell 140.40 points, or 2.9 percent, to 4,636.10.
“This market remains fragile,” said Jack Ablin,
chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank. “There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with the U. S. economy, but we are going through this correction process. We’ve got a rocky road ahead of us.”
Stocks started the day sharply lower and never recovered, with the Dow falling as much as 548 points. No part of the market was spared. All 10 sectors of the S& P 500 index fell more than 2 percent. Just three stocks in the S& P 500 closed higher.
“The problem is, as much as China is the catalyst for this, it’s also that we’re seeing weakness in fundamentals here,” said Matt Maley, an equity strategist at Miller Tabak & Co LLC in New York. “A lot of company earnings were hurt by China in the second quarter, and it’s only gotten worse. People are losing confidence with the whole situation there breaking down, not just in the stock market but in data as well.”
As it’s been for the past several weeks, the selling and problems started in Asia.
An official gauge of Chinese manufacturing fell to a three- year low last month, another sign of slowing growth in that country. The manufacturing index, which surveys purchasing managers at factories, dropped to a reading of 49.7 in August from 50 in July. A reading below 50 indicates a contraction.
China’s stocks sank on the news, with Shanghai Composite Index closing down 1.2 percent. The index has lost 38 percent of its value since hitting a peak in June.
The Chinese economy has been a focus for investors all summer, and the concerns have intensified in the past three weeks. China devalued its currency, the yuan, also known as the renminbi, in mid- August. Investors interpreted the move as a sign that China’s economy was not doing as well as previously reported.
Investors moved Tuesday into traditional havens like bonds and gold. Bond prices rose, pushing the yield on the benchmark 10- year Treasury note down to 2.16 percent from 2.22 percent on Monday. Gold rose $ 7.30, or 0.6 percent, to settle at $ 1,139.80 an ounce.
Faced with the possibility of slowing demand in China, the commodity markets once again took the brunt of the hit.
U. S. crude oil fell $ 3.79 to close at $ 45.41 a barrel in New York. Brent Crude, a benchmark for international oils used by many U. S. refineries, fell $ 4.59 to close at $ 49.56 in London.
Energy stocks were once again among the biggest decliners. Exxon Mobil fell nearly 4 percent and Chevron fell 2.5 percent. Exxon is down 22 percent this year, Chevron 30 percent.
Along with worries about China, speculation about whether the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates as soon as this month continues to weigh on markets. Traders say a lot hinges on the August jobs report, which will be released Friday. Economists are forecasting that U. S. employers created 220,000 jobs in the month and that the unemployment rate fell to 5.2 percent.
The Federal Reserve meets Sept. 16 and 17. Some economists are predicting that policymakers will be confident enough in the U. S. economic recovery to raise interest rates for the first time in almost a decade. While Fed officials are mostly focused on the U. S. economy, they cannot ignore problems in the global economy.
“Markets may have overemphasized China’s impact, but markets are also in relatively bad shape and we’re getting more negative technical signals,” said Otto Waser, chief investment officer at R& A Research & Asset Management AG in Zurich. “It’s a close call for the Fed and as long as markets are in turbulence, I don’t think it will raise rates. If the markets remain too turbulent, they will postpone to October.”
Markets in Europe were broadly lower. Germany’s DAX fell 2.4 percent, France’s CAC- 40 lost 2.4 percent, and the United Kingdom.’ s FTSE 100 index declined 3 percent. Japan’s Nikkei 225 also was volatile, dropping 3.8 percent. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong sank 2.2 percent. Stocks also fell in South Korea and Australia.
If August wasn’t bad enough, historical trading patterns suggest that investors shouldn’t expect a quick rebound this month.
September is statistically the worst month of the year for the stock market, with the S& P 500 index logging an average decline of 1.03 percent in the month over the past 87 years, according to data from S& P Dow Jones Indices.
While there is no specific reason for the stock market’s so- called seasonality, traders and investors do closely follow the historical trends.
“If you’re a watcher of seasonality, you would not be optimistic for the next six weeks or so,” said Scott Wren, senior global equity strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. “It’s just a pattern that has played out often enough for people to pay attention to.”