Stocks are closing higher on Wall Street, sending the Dow Jones industrial average to its first close above 26,000 points.

The Dow had traded above that level on Tuesday but wound up closing lower that day. The Dow’s surge on Wednesday was driven in part by a big gain in Boeing.

With the stock market reaching records so often, 1,000-point moves in the Dow have become increasingly commonplace. It’s been just eight trading days since the Dow had its first close above 25,000.

Technology stocks were again some of the biggest winners. Microsoft rose 2%. The Dow rose 332 points, or 1.3%, to 26,115. The Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 26 points, or 0.9%, to 2,802. The Nasdaq composite gained 74 points, or 1%, to 7,298. </s> The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 1,175 points by the closing bell on Monday afternoon, erasing its gain for the year, as the market extended a slump that began on Friday.

Stocks took their worst loss in six and a half years and ended a period of record-setting calm for stocks.

Earlier in the day, the Dow briefly plunged nearly 1,600 points, before recouping half that loss within minutes, but its gains for the year were still gone.

The dramatic drop on Monday at one point brought the Dow below 24,000 points. The trading day ended with Dow at 24,345 point, down 4.6 per cent.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index, the benchmark most professional investors and many index funds use, skidded 113.19 points, or 4.1 per cent, to 2,648.94. That was its biggest loss since August 2011, when investors were fearful about European government debt and the US came close to breaching its debt ceiling.

The Nasdaq composite fell 273.42 points, or 3.8 per cent, to 6,967.53. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks sank 56.18 points, or 3.6 per cent, for 1,491.09.

The market’s slump began on Friday as investors worried that creeping signs of higher inflation and interest rates could derail the market’s record-setting rally.

'When you have rates moving upwards, typically what happens is that financial conditions tighten, things like bank lending, mortgage lending start to slow and then the economy is at risk of a potential downturn,' said Mona Mahajan, investment strategist with Allianz Global Investors in New York.

The Dow plunged more than 660 points by the time it closed on Friday afternoon.

This fall marked the stock market's worst week in two years.

The last time the index shed this many points in a single day was on August 8, 2011.

As Dow continued sliding, President Donald Trump was in Ohio on Monday praising his recently-passed tax overhaul law and telling workers at a factory near Cincinnati that 'America is once again open for business.'

Trump said the tax cuts are at the center of improving economic conditions.

The stock market has been unusually calm for more than a year. The combination of economic growth in the US and other major economies, low interest rates, and support from central banks meant stocks could keep rising steadily without a lot of bumps along the way. Experts have been warning that that wouldn’t last forever.

David Kelly, the chief global strategist for JPMorgan Asset Management, said the signs of inflation and rising rates are not as bad as they looked, but after the market’s big gains in 2017 and early 2018, stocks were overdue for a drop.

'It’s like a kid at a child’s party who, after an afternoon of cake and ice cream, eats one more cookie and that puts them over the edge,' he said. </s> NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are closing higher on Wall Street, sending the Dow Jones industrial average to its first close above 26,000 points.

The Dow had traded above that level on Tuesday but wound up closing lower that day. The Dow’s surge on Wednesday was driven in part by a big gain in Boeing.

With the stock market reaching records so often, 1,000-point moves in the Dow have become increasingly commonplace. It’s been just eight trading days since the Dow had its first close above 25,000.

Technology stocks were again some of the biggest winners. Microsoft rose 2 percent.

The Dow rose 332 points, or 1.3 percent, to 26,115.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 26 points, or 0.9 percent, to 2,802.

The Nasdaq composite gained 74 points, or 1 percent, to 7,298.

This is a developing story. Stay with 8News online and on air for the latest updates.

Find 8News on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram; send your news tips to iReport8@wric.com. </s> US stocks plunged in highly volatile trading on Monday, with the Dow industrials falling nearly 1,600 points during the session, its biggest intraday decline in history, as investors grappled with rising bond yields and potentially firming inflation.



The benchmark S&P 500 and the Dow suffered their biggest percentage drops since August 2011 as a long-awaited pullback from record highs deepened.



The financial, healthcare, and industrial sectors fell the most but declines were spread broadly as all major 11 S&P groups dropped at least 1.7 percent. All 30 of the blue-chip Dow industrial components finished negative.

With Monday’s declines, the S&P 500 erased its gains for 2018 and is now down 0.9 percent in 2018.

Many investors have been bracing for a pullback for months, as the stock market has minted record high after record high with investors encouraged by solid economic data and corporate earnings prospects, the latter bolstered by recently passed US corporate tax cuts.

Friday’s January jobs report sparked worries over inflation and a surge in bond yields, as well as concerns that the Federal Reserve will raise rates at a faster pace than expected.

“The market has had an incredible run,” Michael O’Rourke — the chief market strategist at Greenwich, Connecticut-based JonesTrading — said.

“We have an environment where interest rates are rising. We have a stronger economy so the Fed should continue to tighten ... You’re seeing real changes occur and different investments are adjusting to that,” O‘Rourke said.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,175.21 points (4.6 percent) to 24,345.75, the S&P 500 lost 113.19 points (4.10 percent) to 2,648.94, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 273.42 points (3.78 percent) to 6,967.53.

The S&P 500 ended 7.8 percent down from its record high on Jan. 26, with the Dow down 8.5 percent over that time.

Even with the sharp declines, stocks finished above their lows touched during the session. At one point, the Dow fell 6.3 percent or 1,597 points, the biggest one-day points loss ever, as it breached both the 25,000 and 24,000 levels during trading.

The stock market has climbed to record peaks since US President Donald Trump’s election and remains up 23.8 percent since his victory. Trump has frequently touted the rise of the stock market during his presidency.

As the stock market fell on Monday, the White House said the fundamentals of the US economy are strong.

The CBOE Volatility index — the closely followed measure of expected near-term stock market volatility — jumped 20 points to 30.71, its highest level since August 2015.

Until recently, gains for stocks have come as the market has been relatively subdued, and any declines were met with buyers looking for bargains.

“People who have been buying the dip are now going to be selling the rip,“ Dennis Dick — a proprietary trader at Las Vegas-based Bright Trading LLC — said. ”The psychology of the market changed today. It’ll take a while to get that psychology back.”

About 11.5 billion shares changed hands in US exchanges, well above the 7.6 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by an 8.64-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 6.92-to-1 ratio favoured decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 1 new 52-week highs and 38 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 17 new highs and 164 new lows. </s> CLOSE Stocks ended their worst week in two years Friday, with the Dow dropping 665 points or 2.5 percent, its largest decline since June 2016. (Feb. 2) AP

Traders and financial professionals work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Jan. 31, 2018 in New York City. (Photo: Drew Angerer, Getty Images)

The Dow Jones industrial average suffered its biggest one-day point drop in history, plunging 1,175 points on Monday and giving back all its 2018 gains as a flash-crash-style drop intensified a free fall in stocks that began last week.

Fears of spiking inflation and borrowing costs caused investors to rethink their bullish views on stocks, which until just last week had fueled huge gains in the blue-chip Dow.

In a wild day on Wall Street, the Dow suddenly spiraled down almost 1,600 points at one moment — in what some analysts said was a computer- and machine-generated drop similar to the Dow's "Flash Crash" back in 2010. The average then recovered and ended the day down 1,175.21 points, or 4.6%, at 24,345.75.

While the pounding in point terms was historic — with the loss eclipsing the prior one-day record of 778 points lost during the 2008 financial crisis — the Dow's 4.6% decline on Monday was not sizable enough for Wall Street pros to describe it as a crash. And the decline didn't even make the top 20 biggest percentage drops for the Dow.

"A waterfall crashette," is the way Gary Kaltbaum, president of Kaltbaum Capital Management, described the drop, which left the Dow down 8.5% for the year and ever closer to a long-anticipated "correction," or 10% drop, that many Wall Street pros have been calling for after the Dow's 25% gain last year.

Asked why the Dow, which also cratered 666 points Friday, gyrated so wildly, Axel Merk, chief investment officer at San Francisco-based Merk Investments, said: "When stocks reach new highs month after month, when a virtual currency is the hottest thing in town, greed has overtaken fear. And when that happens, well, it's time to be fearful again. Consider this a wake-up call."

The market had been enjoying a dizzying ascent since President Trump was elected in November 2016, with the Dow gaining 45% through its record closing high on January 26, 2018.

But investors got too exuberant and stock prices ran up too much, too fast, making the market vulnerable. Stocks simply had too many buyers at the start of the year. In fact, more than $100 billion flowed into stocks globally at the beginning of 2018, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch data.

The Dow's massive drop was the market's way of "unwinding" the excess price gains that had built up, says Tom Essaye, editor and founder of a financial newsletter The Sevens Report.

The selloff has been sparked by inflation fears and worries that interest rates could rise faster than expected. Those fears stem from a strong employment report released Friday that showed wage growth for hourly workers over the past year had risen nearly 3%, its quickest pace since 2009.

Monday's selloff has pushed the Dow down more than 5% from a high for the first time since the Brexit vote in June 2016 — or 19 months ago, a record. In contrast, since 1928, the market has suffered an average of 3.4 annual drops of 5% or more, according to Bespoke Investment Group.

The long period since the last scary market event makes the current drop, which market pros had been warning about, seem worse than it is.

"No matter how well telegraphed or forecasted a pullback may be, it's still never fun," Chris Verrone, a stock strategist at New York-based Strategas Research Partners, told clients in a report.

Wall Street pros noted that business conditions were still supportive of stocks, noting that the economy is strong, the job market robust and corporate earnings growth on the rise following a big tax cut for businesses.

And President Trump, who had been touting the market's record highs, on Monday evening also stressed the economy's soundness, through his press secretary, Sarah Sanders: “The President’s focus is on our long-term economic fundamentals, which remain exceptionally strong, with strengthening U.S. economic growth, historically low unemployment, and increasing wages for American workers."

One firm pointed out that the market has actually performed well when interest rates are rising. While another said the combination of falling stock prices and rising earnings has made the pricey market less expensive.

Investors were once again advised to keep the selloff in perspective. A 401(k) investor who had $100,000 in the Dow at the market peak in late January, still has $91,500 in his or her account even after the recent decline.

"Corrections are a normal part of the investing process and not a reason to sell quality investments," said Alan Skrainka, chief investment officer at Cornerstone Wealth Management in Des Peres, Missouri. ""My best advice for investors with long-term goals like saving for retirement is to turn off the TV and go walk the dog."

More: Here's what to watch for after the Dow's big drop

More: 4 tips following the stock market's 666-point drop

More: Dow plunges 666 points amid rate-hike fears after strong jobs report

Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2sczpY1 </s> U.S. stocks opened sharply lower Tuesday on the heels of selloffs earlier in the day in Asia and Europe and one day after the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed the most points in one day in its more than 120-year history.

The Dow fell 530 points at the market open and the more broad-based Standard & Poors 500 Index (S&P 500) tumbled 1.3 percent. The technology heavy Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 1.1 percent.

Earlier Tuesday, Asia's benchmark stock indexes collapsed, as Monday's massive selloffs on Wall Street rolled across the globe.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index lost as much seven percent of its value at one point during the trading session, before closing at 21,610 points, a loss of nearly five percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index followed suit, dropping just over five percent in its worst trading day since August 2015.

The benchmark indexes in Australia and South Korea also suffered serious losses.

In early Europe trading London's FTSE 100 was down 3.5 percent at 7,081 points.

Asian markets were caught in the ripple effect of Monday's 1,175-point loss on the Dow, marking the biggest point decline in history. The S&P 500 also had a bad day, losing just over four percent to finish at 2,648 points.

The stock market has now lost about a trillion dollars in value since Friday, when the Dow lost 666 points. That drop followed a solid jobs report that showed the U.S. economy adding 200 thousand jobs and wages rising at the fastest pace in a decade. The tighter labor market and rising wages prompted investor fears of higher inflation and the possibility that the U.S. Federal Reserve would raise interest rates faster and higher than they have in recent years.

Analysts who spoke with VOA had been expecting a stock market "correction," a decline of at least 10 percent from the most recent record highs, as a result of the record run-up in stock prices this year. </s> NEW YORK: US stocks took a historic tumble on Monday (Tuesday in Manila), with the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average at one point losing almost 1,600 points—the biggest-ever dip during trading—before recovering somewhat to close at 4.6 percent.

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 While sending waves through the global financial system, Monday’s swoon—which ended at 23,923.88, erasing all of this year’s gains—was far from Wall Street’s most devastating. Below are some of its worst crashes and corrections”

On October 19, 1987—almost 58 years to the day after the Wall Street crash at the start of the Great Depression in 1929—the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost a stunning 22.6 percent, falling 508 points to close at 1,738.74.

Analysts blamed the crash—which was the equivalent of more than 5,500 points in today’s terms—on factors that include selling in computerized trade, overvaluation and collapsing oil prices after markets had soared earlier that year.

Stock markets were shut for a calendar week after terror attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. left close to 3,000 people dead.

Wall Street fell precipitously in the week after the attacks, with the Dow sinking 7.1 percent, or 684 points, on September 17—the first day trading resumed.

By noon, financial giants JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup were both 6 percent lower.

At the start of the financial crisis, the Dow suffered what was then its biggest one-day point drop ever on September 29, 2008, losing 7 percent, or 778 points, after lawmakers failed to adopt a $700-billion bailout plan, erasing more than $1 trillion in market value.

Investors dumped stocks on fears Congress would not be able to pass a rescue plan to unfreeze US credit markets, with banks hoarding cash as the effects of the subprime crisis cascaded through the financial system.

Wall Street got a serious case of the jitters the day after British voters’ shock decision to exit the European Union.

On June 24, 2016, amid uncertainty of the economic consequences of Britain’s secession, all three major indices erased year-to-date gains by falling more than 3 percent, with the Dow falling 611.21 points, or 3.4 percent, to close at 17,399.86.

The most devastating Wall Street crash occurred over several days in 1929 and preceded the start of the Great Depression. Markets had soared in the 1920s, based to a large extent on deceit, speculation and unsustainable margin-buying, before falling off a cliff.

On October 28, 1929, the Dow fell 12.8 percent, or 38.33 points, the height of the worst financial panic Americans had ever seen, feeding into misery that would last for years. </s> The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared to a record closing high on Tuesday, breaking through levels last seen in 2007 and as investors rushed in to join the party in anticipation of more gains.

Based on the latest available data, the Dow Jones industrial average shot up 126.18 points, or 0.89 percent, to end unofficially at 14,253.92. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 14.60 points, or 0.96 percent, to finish unofficially at 1,539.80. The Nasdaq Composite Index was jumped 42.10 points, or 1.32 percent, to close unofficially at 3,224.13. </s> How the Dow Jones industrial average fared on Tuesday

U.S. stocks abruptly changed course again Tuesday and took large losses. Investors worried about the possibility of a weaker global economy and tried to anticipate the Federal Reserve's plans for interest rates. Energy companies fell with the price of oil after a leading industry group said demand for oil is down more than it previously thought.

The Dow Jones industrial average tumbled 258.32 points, or 1.4 percent, to 18,066.75.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 32.02 points, or 1.5 percent, to 2,127.02.

The Nasdaq composite shed 56.63 points, or 1.1 percent, to 5,155.25.

The Dow is down 18.70 points, or 0.1 percent.

The S&P 500 is down 0.79 points, or 0.04 percent.

The Nasdaq is up 29.35 points, or 0.6 percent.

The Dow is up 641.72 points, or 3.7 percent.

The S&P 500 is up 83.08 points, or 4.1 percent.

The Nasdaq is up 147.84 points, or 3 percent.
The Wall Street stock market sheds 4.6% of its value, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping a record 1,175 points at close. At one point during the day, the benchmark index loses a record 1,579 points.