Wall Street was headed for one more day of losses on Monday as recent data from China raised fresh concerns concerning the outlook for the worldwide economy for investors already wary of high inflation, rising rates of interest and continuing supply chain disruptions.
U.S. stock futures fell on news that China’s exports slowed significantly in April, because the country’s lockdowns continued to idle tens of millions of employees. Exports of Chinese steel, a barometer of worldwide growth, are unlikely to enhance much in May, in response to analysts at S&P Global, a research firm. Stocks in Asia mostly declined on Monday.
Oil prices slumped. Each Brent crude, the worldwide benchmark, and West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, fell about 2.7 percent, to about $109 and $107.
The S&P 500 is coming off its fifth consecutive weekly decline, its longest streak of losses since June 2011.
In 2021, there was seemingly no bad news that might stop the U.S. stock market, with the S&P 500 gaining 26.9 percent. What’s more, trading was remarkably placid given the uncertainty across the coronavirus.
However the volatility and losses which have gone hand in hand with recessions are back.
In 2021, the index had a every day gain or lack of greater than 2.5 percent only once, on Jan. 27, as meme stocks like GameStop and AMC Entertainment spiked in a speculative frenzy and the Federal Reserve said a resurgent coronavirus was weighing on the economic recovery.
Already this 12 months there have been seven days with gains or losses of no less than 2.5 percent — about one in every 12 trading days. All of those big every day changes have been in March, April and May.
Strings of massive gains and losses are more typical of recessions and the periods that follow them. Before the pandemic wreaked havoc on the stock market in 2020, the last string of massive changes was in 2007-11, through the financial crisis and the recovery from it. Before that, the dot-com boom and bust, and the Sept. 11 attacks, brought volatility.
Outside such major events, it’s more common to have just a couple of big changes every year. There have even been a few years with no such big moves: 10 previously 30 years.
