DOW drops big again – Down 1175 pts to 24,346 or -4.6%

Posted By on February 5, 2018

DowNasSP500_180205Well, well, well … perhaps this is the correction many watching the financial markets have been looking for as a 4.6% drop on the DOW in a day is a rather large one.

It was another day of selling on Wall Street helped by computerized programmed trading and likely the relatively new ETF broad based trading instrument. An ETFis a preferred low cost way to participate in a broad basket of stocks or an Index and once they are sold, requires the underlining individual stocks to be sold.

There was a point in the afternoon that even regular market watchers, who are often waiting to pick up shares at a discount, started to show a bit of nervousness. The challenging part for those of us who study the economy, is that there really are few bad news stories contributing to such a sell off. Besides the nonstop gains of 2017, the recent comments coming from the Fed has people worried about interest rates rising as they attempt to get ahead of any possible sign of inflation. A robust economy is good news, but too much blind buying is a concern.

Personally I worried more back in 2008 when we had a serious banking crisis than I do today. Yes, the growing debt and lack of fiscal controls when it comes to the Federal government spending is a big deal … as is health care, an ill prepared aging population (social security and Medicare) and excessive borrowing by students for there education.

For now … those wanting to grow their investments, stocks just got quite a bit cheaper … but who knows just where the bottom is?

Here’s a list of the 30 Dow Companies closing on Monday, February 5, 2018:

DowStocks180205

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