Wall Street’s losses worsen on worries about China’s COVID slowdowns

Stocks racked up more losses on Wall Street Monday, leaving the S&P 500 at its lowest point in more than a year.

The selloff came as renewed worries about China’s economy piled on top of global financial markets already battered by rising interest rates.

The S&P 500 tumbled 3.2%, deepening its losses following five straight down weeks, its longest such streak in more than a decade.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 2% and the Nasdaq pulled back 4.3% as tech-oriented stocks again took the brunt of the selling. Monday’s sharp drop leaves the S&P 500, Wall Street’s main measure of health, down 16.8% from its record set early this year.

Wall Street’s pullback followed a worldwide swoon for markets. Not only did stocks fall across Europe and much of Asia, but so did everything from old-economy crude oil to new-economy Bitcoin. Bond yields and the price of gold also fell.

“Basically, investors are finding it very difficult to find a place to hide,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA.

“The traditional safe havens, such as defensive sectors or such as bonds, are not doing that well. Commodities are not doing well.”

The S&P 500 fell 132.10 to 3,991.24. The Dow dropped 653.67 points to 32,245.70. The Nasdaq slid 521.41 points to 11,623.25.

Worries about China, the world’s second-largest economy, were a big cause of the gloom Monday.

Wall Street analysts cited worrisome comments over the weekend by a Chinese official warning of a grave situation for jobs, as the country hopes to halt the spread of the coronavirus.

The fear is that China’s strict anti-COVID policies will add more disruptions to worldwide trade and supply chains, while dragging on its economy, which for years was a main driver of global growth.

In the past, Wall Street has endured similar pressures because of the strong profit growth that companies were producing.

But this most recent earnings reporting season for big U.S. companies has yielded less enthusiasm. Companies overall are reporting bigger profits than expected, as is usually the case.

The Nasdaq composite’s loss of 25.7% for 2022 so far is much sharper than that for other indexes.