Hello there, I hope you’re doing well. Today, I’d like to dive into some significant news that has been making the rounds recently. The economic landscape is experiencing some notable shifts, and I believe it’s vital that we grasp what’s going on.
This past Monday, stocks experienced a dramatic dive, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeting over a thousand points, a decrease of 2.6%. Concurrently, the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 also faced significant drops, descending 3.43% and 3%, respectively. This day marked the most severe for the Dow and S&P 500 since September 2022.
You might be curious about the reasons behind this economic turbulence. Several factors are involved. A jobs report that fell below expectations and a deceleration in manufacturing activity were among the elements causing apprehension. These worries, combined with bleak predictions from substantial-tech companies, led to a correction in the Nasdaq 100 and Nasdaq Composite last week.
Greg McBride, the chief financial analyst at Bankrate, noted that these economic worries, coupled with other elements like international unrest and currency swings, are a recipe for sudden volatility.
Another key development is the triggering of what’s termed the “Sahm Rule” due to the weak jobs data. This rule, considered a dependable recession indicator, is named after Claudia Sahm, a former Federal Reserve economist. The Sahm Rule has accurately anticipated every recession since 1970.
#KamalaCrash pic.twitter.com/jLWrwpHBTh
— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) August 5, 2024
In essence, the Sahm rule suggests that we could be entering a recession if the three-month moving average of the unemployment rate goes half a percentage point above the 12-month low. For the last three months, the unemployment rate averaged 4.13%, which is 0.63 percentage points above the 3.5% rate in July 2023, hence surpassing the specified threshold.
As a result of these occurrences, major Wall Street brokerages have updated their Fed rate predictions for 2024, foreseeing more policy easing from the central bank.
The Dow Jones and Nasdaq were both down over 1000 points and your 401k collapse
They want endless World War III World War 3 WWIII #stockmarketcrashpic.twitter.com/Wf6p4gmaWG
— AJ Huber (@Huberton) August 5, 2024
The effects are not limited to the US. Japanese stocks also faced a blow, with the Nikkei 225 index closing over 12% lower on Monday, making it the worst day since 1987.
Cryptocurrencies were not spared either, with bitcoin’s price plummeting 17.5% to $50,239 per coin, and ethereum dropping 23% to $2,230 each.
Bidenomics is blowing up right before the election. @KamalaHarris and @JoeBiden raided the treasury, handed out corporate welfare, imported millions of foreign workers, declared a war on energy and patted themselves on the back. Two economic illiterate tax-and-spend puppets gave… pic.twitter.com/kC3nzRWMoz
— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) August 6, 2024
