US stocks suffer sharpest first-half drop in more than 50 years
And finally... Wall Street has ended the day lower, ending a month, a quarter and indeed a half-year of losses.
As feared, the S&P 500 has posted its worst first half to a year in more than half a century.
All three major U.S. stock indexes finished the month and the second quarter in negative territory, with the S&P 500 notching its steepest first-half percentage drop since 1970, down 20.6%.
S&P 500 plunged 20.6% in H1 2022, suffered worst first half since 1970. How the second half will play out is still a coin toss. Since 1957, in the years when the S&P 500 had a negative first half, the benchmark had a negative second half about 50% of the time. pic.twitter.com/afmO3fZkef
— Holger Zschaepitz (@Schuldensuehner) June 30, 2022
The Nasdaq had its largest-ever January-June percentage drop, down 29.5%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average suffered its biggest first-half percentage plunge since 1962, losing over 15%.
Today, the Dow fell 253.88 points, or 0.82%, to 30,775.43, the S&P 500 lost 33.45 points, or 0.88%, to 3,785.38 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 149.16 points, or 1.33%, to 11,028.74.
*FOR THE MONTH:
— Investing.com (@Investingcom) June 30, 2022
*THE S&P 500 FELL 8.4% IN JUNE
*THE NASDAQ FELL 8.7%
*THE DOW FELL 6.7%
🇺🇸🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/gJHQwvVYoM
Jonas Goltermann, Senior Markets Economist at Capital Economics, fears more pain ahead.
Despite renewed falls in equity markets and broadening signs that investors are bracing for a major slowdown in the global economy, most central banks appear determined to press ahead with the most aggressive and synchronised tightening cycle since at least the 1990s.
While policymakers may eventually relent, we think their willingness to impose further pain on financial markets continues to be underestimated.
I may pop back later with a market update, but otherwise here are today’s main stories:
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