Before you boogaloo boys get too excited about the worldwide stock crashes today, let's pause and take a look at what's happening in the market and where it might go from here.
If you spend any time on social media, you'll know that people love to doompost for clicks. Every time something happens, WW3 and/or the Great Depression 2.0 is about to kick off.
On Sunday evening in the U.S., crashing stocks in Asian markets caused a flurry of such posts.
Yeesh.
There is cause for concern regarding a major economic crash. On Friday, the U.S. Labor Department reported it has only added 114,000 jobs and the unemployment rate had jumped to 4.3%. If you've been following the Biden admin, you'll know they have been regularly revising those numbers a month or two after reporting them, and the revisions are normally worse news for the economy. This has led to many people accusing Biden of attempting to hide the economic woes of the nation (and, when the Biden admin and its media allies go as far as to revise the definition of a recession, that criticism is deserved).
The Federal Reserve also announced that it would not cut interest rates, which signals that our central planners are still worried about the health of the economy.
Meanwhile, there is uncertainty about a Kamala Harris presidency, which would double down on the current economic policies under this inflationary period, as well as the historic "achievement" of U.S. government debt crossing $35 trillion last week.
Though these factors account for only part of the problem (other factors include instability in the Middle East with the ongoing war in Israel and a lack of return on AI investments), the added doubt and uncertainty in the future is creating volatility in the market.
That volatility came to a head in Japan:
From Business Insider:
In Japan, often considered Asia's most important market, the benchmark Nikkei index dropped by more than 12% on the day, continuing a sell-off that started late last week.
It was sparked in part by Japan's central bank decision to raise interest rates, strengthening the yen against the dollar, and rising investor fears of a US recession has also played a role.
To put it into context, a move of 2% in either direction for a major index like the Nikkei on any given day is substantial — meaning a 12% drop is huge.
'The overriding message from today is ... hold on to your hats,' Jim Reid, a research strategist at Deutsche Bank, as Tokyo battled losses of a scale not seen in almost 40 years since the Black Friday crash of 1987.
South Korea, Taiwan, and Australia also saw substantial drops in their markets.
European markets were a bit steadier, but were still down.
When U.S. markets opened on Monday morning, the results were predictable:
Former President Donald Trump weighed in on the matter:
Man, the next presidential debate is gonna be fun!
Crypto was also down on Monday, with Bitcoin falling 12%.
We'll update you on what happens throughout the day and the week ahead, but maybe slow down before you cash out, grab that bug-out bag, and call your friends to tell them WW3/Civil War 2/the Apocalypse is kicking off.
Then again...
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