Look out below!
Stocks were hammered today, with the major indices wrapping up the day with their biggest single-day loss since February.
Today's drop wasn't tied to a specific event or "catalyst". But U.S. Treasury yields pushing towards multi-year highs, Hurricane Michael approaching Florida as the most powerful storm to hit the continental U.S. in decades, and big tech names getting slammed didn't help matters.
And things got ugly!
With today's sell-off, 190 of the 500 companies in the S&P 500 were in correction territory (10-20% below their 52-week high).
The S&P finished lower for the 5th day in a row. This is the longest losing streak since 2016, and the lowest close we've seen since July.
But it was the NASDAQ leading the major indices lower, losing more than 4.0%. With today's close, the NASDAQ finished at levels not seen since May.
With stocks tanking, the VIX (aka "Fear Index") jumped 36.2% to its highest level since March.
Here's where the major indices ended the day:
- The S&P finished 3.3% lower. Down 95 points, the S&P ended at 2,786.
- The DOW ended with a 3.2% loss. Dropping 832 points, the DOW closed at 25,599.
- The NASDAQ was down 4.1%. With a 316 point loss, the NASDAQ finished at 7,422.
- Bitcoin finished 0.6% lower. Down $40, Bitcoin ended at $6,530.
Crude Oil (CL) dropped again, as Hurricane Michael hit the Florida Panhandle as a Category 4 storm. With a 2.3% loss, Crude Oil finished at $73.27 a barrel.
FANG stocks were crushed today.
Netflix (NFLX) was hit with an 8.4% loss, Amazon (AMZN) was down 6.2%, Facebook (FB) lost 4.1% and Alphabet (GOOG) ended with a 5.1% loss.
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