Wall Street takes a dive; Dow drops 1175 points

By ALAN SMASON

Wall Street suffered its largest point drop in history on Monday when it posted a 1,175 point loss for the day in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. This represents a 4.61% loss in the market and coupled with a 600-point selloff on Friday, means that all of the year’s gains have been wiped out.

Stock market correction. (Image courtesy of Pixabay)

At one point the Dow had dropped 1,600 points early in the day, but did recover a bit at the close of trading. Analysts point out that while the loss yesterday was historic, the marketplace is up a whopping 21% overall since President Donald Trump took office.

All of the Standard & Poor’s listings of its 500 industrial companies also took a significant loss, registering a 4.1% loss. The NASDAQ also registered a 3.78% loss, ending the day at 6,967 points. The largest sector of losers was apparently posted in the health industry.

The single worst day registered for a point loss on Wall Street took place on September 29, 2008 at the height of the collapse of the housing market during President George Bush’s administration. That decline of 775 points translated into a 7% fall in the overall value of the marketplace.

However, none of these drops can compare to the 22.6% market value drop experienced on October 19, 1987, a day known as Black Monday. Triggered by a selloff of foreign markets in Asia and in London, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 558 points that day to end at a little more than 1,738 points. That date was worst than the previous “Black Tuesday” designation for the October 29, 1929 Stock Market Crash that brought the nation into the Great Depression. 

As expected, investors in Asian markets early Tuesday reacted to the selloff, termed by many analysts as a correction after historic highs in the stock market. All Asian markets including Tokyo’s Nikkei index are sharply down. The Tokyo Stock Exchange lost more than 1,071 points, which translated into a 4.73% drop in one day. How all of this will affect Wall Street, when the markets here open this morning, remains to be seen.