INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
NEW YORK: Wall Street sold off sharply on Wednesday as recession fears gripped the market after the US Treasury yield curve temporarily
inverted for the first time in 12 years.
All three major US indexes closed down about 3 per cent, with the blue-chip Dow posting its biggest
one-day point drop since October after 2-year Treasury yields surpassed those of 10-year bonds, which is considered a classic recession
signal.
Dire economic data from China and Germany suggested a faltering global economy, stricken by the increasingly belligerent US-China
trade war, Brexit woes and geopolitical tensions.
Germany reported a contraction in second-quarter gross domestic product, and China's
industrial growth in July hit a 17-year low.
"It was all negative and not much positive today," said Chuck Carlson, chief executive officer
at Horizon Investment Services in Hammond, Indiana
"We're outside of the earnings season and markets are being batted around by news."
"It's a reactionary market right now and probably will
continue to be," Carlson added
"My guess is we're probably in for this until after Labor Day."
Wednesday was the first time that yields for 2-year and 10-year Treasuries
had inverted since June 2007, months before the onset of the great recession, which crippled markets for years.
The US yield curve has
inverted before every recession in the past 50 years.
"It could be different this time," Carlson said
"When you've got $15 trillion in global government debt at negative yields, that's a new animal.
"Even if it is accurate in foreshadowing a
recession, that doesn't mean it's coming tomorrow," he added.
The CBOE volatility index, a gauge of investor anxiety, jumped 4.58 points to
22.10.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 800.49 points, or 3.05 per cent, to 25,479.42, the S-P 500 lost 85.72 points, or 2.93 per cent,
to 2,840.6, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 242.42 points, or 3.02 per cent, to 7,773.94.
Over 300 of the S-P 500's components are down 10
per cent or more from their 52-week highs, according to Refinitiv data
More than 180 of those stocks have fallen more than 20 per cent from their 52-week highs, putting them in bear market territory.
All of the
11 major sectors in the S-P 500 closed in negative territory, with energy, financials, materials, consumer discretionary and communications
services all falling 3 per cent or more.
Interest rate-sensitive banks tumbled 4.3 per cent.
Macy's Inc's shares plunged 13.2 per cent after
the department store operator missed quarterly profit estimates and cut its full-year earnings estimates.
Rival department store operators
Nordstrom Inc and Kohls Corp slid 10.6 per cent and 11.0 per cent, respectively.
A US House of Representatives oversight panel called on
Mylan NV and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd to turn over documents as part of a review into generic drug price increases.
Mylan fell 8.5
per cent while US-listed Teva shares dipped 10.5 per cent.
Facebook Inc slid 4.6 per cent on news that the European Union's lead regulator
is investigating how the social media company handled data during the manual transcription of users' audio recordings.
Declining issues
outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 4.44-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 5.33-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S-P 500 posted eight new
52-week highs and 51 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 23 new highs and 282 new lows.
Volume on US exchanges was 8.68 billion shares,
compared with the 7.47 billion average over the last 20 trading days