Blood Bath on Wall Street: Massive Sell-Off As Stock Market Plunges, China Blamed

21st Century Wire says…

The Dow Jones industrial average plummeted over 1000 points just after the opening of the US stock exchanges this morning. The market’s downward move began on Sunday evening, and signals an official end to what pundits see as a 6 year bull market. What does it mean?

The likely culprit for this current wave of panic and fear seems to be China. Their recent shock currency devaluation has cascaded, with the rippled effects being felt throughout into the global financial system, with world stocks and oil prices (dropping below $39 per barrel) plunging on Monday as a global sell-off hit fever pitch.

Some insiders are saying that today’s stock market crash is simply delaying the inevitable – the eventual raising of interest rates by the US Federal Reserve which was expected in September. Now, who knows when the rate rise will come?

Here’s how the crash went down…

USA TODAY

NEW YORK — Stocks plunged at the open as the market bloodbath showed no signs of letting up with the Dow tumbling as much as 1,089 points in the opening minutes of trading.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index plunged 4.4% as the broad-based index joined the Dow in correction territory, a drop of 10% or more from its recent high. The Nasdaq composite index dropped 5% and also fell into a correction.

Market anxiety is on the rise after a big sell-off in China overnight, where the Shanghai composite index shed 8.5%, its biggest one-day decline since 2007 — and Chinese media were dubbing the selloff “Black Monday.” The global stock rout then moved to Europe where major indexes there are off roughly 5%.

“Bad break,” is the way Edward Yardeni, chief investment strategist at Yardeni Research, described the global tumult in stock markets around the globe.

The massive selloff, which kicked into high gear last week when the Dow tumbled more than 1,000 points and sank into official correction territory, which is defined as a drop of 10% or more. Wall Street is still trying to gauge what will stop the landslide and stabilize the battered market, how bad the ultimate decline will be, and when it’s safe to dive back into the market and seek out battered stocks.

The sell off has been driven by growing fears that China’s economy, the world’s second-biggest and once the engine of world growth, is slowing more than many investors had thought, raising fears that a global economic relapse will ensue, hurting corporate profits for companies in the U.S. and the rest of the globe…

Continue this story at USA TODAY

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