Dow closes nearly 500 points lower Thursday as investors' recession fears awaken
Stocks sold off Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbling nearly 500 points, as investors’ fears over a recession surfaced.
Stocks sold off Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbling nearly 500 points, as investors’ fears over a recession surfaced.
The Dow dropped 494 points, or 1.2%. The S&P 500 shed 1.4%, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped 2.3%. The Russell 2000 index, the small-cap benchmark that has rallied lately, dropped 3%.
Some fresh data raised the specter of an economic contraction and the notion that the Federal Reserve could be too late to start cutting interest rates.
Initial jobless claims rose the most since August 2023. And the ISM manufacturing index, a barometer of factory activity in the U.S., came in at 46.8%, worse than expected and a signal of economic contraction.
The 10-year Treasury yield broke below 4% for the first time since February in a sign that more investors were seeking safe-haven assets.
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