Election chaos and Friday’s tech outage are taking the market on a wild ride
CNN
Stocks are soaring this year, but that could soon change as election chaos takes the market on a rollercoaster ride.
Stocks are soaring this year, but that could soon change as election chaos takes the market on a rollercoaster ride. The S&P 500 is up more than 15% since January and hasn’t fallen by 2% in more than 353 trading sessions. That’s the longest such streak since 2007 (right before the financial collapse). But this has been a destabilizing week for US stocks and the market trajectory could be shifting. Investors have struggled to find their footing in recent days as they contend with an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, rising odds that President Joe Biden will drop out of the election, attacks on Big Tech and chipmakers from both sides of the aisle and a global computer outage affecting airports, banks, hospitals and other businesses. The Dow fell 378 points, or 0.9%, on Friday as the tech outage continued to rattle investors. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite were down 0.7% and 0.8%, respectively. It’s the latest session to see stocks oscillating this week, reaching new highs before swinging back down again.
Nippon Steel is expected to re-file its application for a national security review by American regulators of its $15 billion takeover bid of US Steel, sources familiar with the matter told CNN on Tuesday, buying Japan’s largest steelmaker an additional 90 days to close its acquisition of an American rival after political opposition emerged in an election year.
So far, the attacks that targeted Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah members through their pagers have had devastating consequences. At least nine people, including an eight-year-old girl, were killed, and at least 2,800 were wounded. Over 150 of those injured are in critical condition, according to the Lebanese health minister.