Stock markets continued to fall on Monday, bringing the S&P 500 index to its lowest close for the year after a 2% drop to 2,545.94, CNBC reports. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 507.53 points to 23,592.98, and the Nasdaq fell 2.2% to close at 6,753.73. The Dow has lost more than 1,000 points in two days.
The Dow and S&P 500 are both technically in a correction, meaning values have fallen at least 10% since recent peaks. The drops come as investors worry about continuing trade tensions, a court ruling declaring Obamacare unconstitutional, the potential partial government shutdown, the unresolved Brexit issue, and a rising backlash against big tech companies.
Microsoft and Amazon both saw their stocks drop Monday, as did a number of healthcare companies potentially affected by the court ruling, which likely won’t go into effect until after several rounds of appeals.
President Donald Trump, who previously touted stock market gains during his presidency, has publicly urged the Federal Reserve to stop raising interest rates, which can slow economic growth.
It is incredible that with a very strong dollar and virtually no inflation, the outside world blowing up around us, Paris is burning and China way down, the Fed is even considering yet another interest rate hike. Take the Victory!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 17, 2018
Cryptocurrency, on the other hand, made a bit of a recovery, with bitcoin up more than 8% to about $3,539.33 and Ethereum up more than 10% to $95.09 in the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap data. That’s still a far cry from where the digital currencies stood just a year ago, when bitcoin hit a record high of $20,000.
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