Dow drops 545 points as stock market slide continues

By Kevin Dugan



October 11, 2018 | 4:23pm | Updated

 

AP

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Carnage on Wall Street deepened on Thursday, with the Dow plunging more than 500 points as fears grew that rising trade tensions and interest rates could put a cap on economic growth.

The Dow’s drop — which came on the heels of a day-earlier tumble of 831 points, the worst since February — came despite muted inflation data on Thursday morning. While stocks had initially peeked into positive territory on the news, a brutal selloff resumed in the late afternoon.

The blue-chip index slid as much as 699 points before ending the session down 545.91 points, or 2.13 percent, at 25,052.83. The S&P 500, a broader index of US stocks, ended the day down 2 percent, or 57 points, to 2,728.37.

Both indexes have fallen more than 5 percent the past two days.

The Nasdaq, which had fallen the most on Wednesday — a whopping 4.1 percent as Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Alphabet and Netflix all got hammered — was off the least, down 1.1 percent, to 6,964.03.

The volatile day came President Trump lambasted the Federal Reserve as “loco” for raising rates, and as investors gird themselves for other central banks around the world also start to tighten credit markets.

“This is a 10-year trend that’s now reversing,” Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Cresset Wealth Advisors, told The Post. “So while President Trump blames the Fed for yesterday’s woes, he didn’t give them the credit for interest rates below fair value for 10 years.”

On Thursday, Trump continued to hammer on the Fed, saying he was “disappointed” in the central bank’s chairman, Jay Powell, for raising rates.

Investors, who expect one more interest rate hike this year in December, are also concerned about the European Central Bank, which is phasing out its $30 billion a month accommodative program this year.

“Most of this move has nothing to do with the Fed,” Ablin said. “It has more to do with the European Central Bank. They’re ending their [bond buying program] in about a month or so.”

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