Dow skids about 400 points lower in early action on the eve of Christmas

[workinclasszero]

Barbara Kollmeyer, Mark DeCambre Published: Dec 24, 2018 10:11 a.m. ET

U.S. stock indexes trade sharply lower in a holiday-shortened session after the worst week of trading since the financial crisis of 2008.

Wall Street trading on the New York Stock Exchange will end at 1 p.m. Eastern Time, on the eve of Christmas and will be closed on Tuesday for the holiday.

How are benchmarks performing?

The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -1.81% trades 380 points, or 1.7%, lower at 22,069, while the S&P 500 index SPX, -1.63% fell 40 points, or 1.7%, to 2,376. The Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, -0.81% COMP, -0.81% traded down 82 points, or 1.3%, to 6,254.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are coming off the worst weekly percentage declines in about a decade, while the Dow booked its worst point drop in about 10 years. All three indexes are set for the ugliest monthly drop since October of 2008, during the heart of the 2008-09 financial crisis.

The Nasdaq officially entered bear-market territory on Friday, down 21.9% from its Aug. 31 highs. That is as the S&P and the Dow inch closer to bear market territory, with the S&P off 17.5% from its Sept. 20 highs, and the Dow down 16.3% from an Oct. 3 high.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stock-futures-point-to-a-christmas-eve-bounce-for-battered-equities-2018-12-24

[Turbineguy]

1. Every ime the market tries to recover

trump does or tweets something stupid.

[BritVic]

2. -450 now - just over an hour till the close.

[Johnny2X2X]

3. Mnuchin's message was loud and clear

The message was that he and Trump are totally clueless. They have no idea what they’re doing.

[workinclasszero]

7. Bingo

This is what happens when a reality show pussy grabber get "elected" into the presidency!

[Wellstone ruled]

4. December 1929.

[duforsure]

5. This is only the warning

What's coming from all their horrible policies and tariffs. Wait until its dropping thousands a day, then just maybe people will realize they were conned, and this liar and the gop have destroyed what saved us from a depression , the President Obama policies and economy , which they destroyed.

[George II]

6. Now down 450, below 22,000. Lowest since September 2017.

[csziggy]

8. -651 as of close

If I were a betting person I would bet that Dolt45 does not mention the stock market for the next six months - unless he wants to blame the Trump CRASH on someone else. Hmmm, I wonder who that would be?

[workinclasszero]

10. Damn

Good job Trump, gonna run America right into the ground like all of your failed businesses!

[Bucky]

9. Remember when he said he wanted to undo everything Obama did?

I guess he decided to start with the stock market index

[Liberal In Texas]

11. Guess no Santa Clause stock market rally this year.

What is a Santa Claus Rally?
A Santa Claus rally describes sustained increases in the stock market that occur in the last week of December through the first two trading days in January. There are numerous explanations for the causes of a Santa Claus rally including tax considerations, a general feeling of optimism and happiness on Wall Street and the investing of holiday bonuses. Another theory is that some very large institutional investors, a number of whom are more sophisticated and pessimistic, tend to go on vacation at this time leaving the market to retail investors, who tend to be more bullish. - Investopedia

[wishstar]

12. Stock rally might have happened if he signed the continuing resolution and not fired Mattis

He could have gone down to Mar-a-Lago and encouraged positive goodwill over the holidays instead of negativity and chaos.

I was actually expecting a market uptick starting last Thursday if the resolution had gone through until he blew everything up and then he and Mnuchin made it even worse over the weekend.

He did succeed in turning all media attention away from this week's Flynn debacle and the Trump Foundation scandal.