Underrated comment.
Just a reminder. The stock market is not the economy.
So the stock market crashing today actually means we are doing fantastic RN.
That is all.
The stock market is not the economy but sometimes big changes in the stock market do reflect the state of the economy.
The market should have gone up after Powell said that the economy was on track for the FED to lower interest rates in September.
But the increased first time unemployment insurance filings this past month were not economic good news.
Wall Street expectations for earnings this week were not met by many companies reporting. Not economic good news.
The yield on the 10 year treasury note has dropped. Making a Fed decrease in rates unlikely to have much effect on the economy. Is that good or bad economic news? I am puzzling over that.
It’s a data point. The overall issues mentioned above are all bad. No way to stop something that large in motion…until it crashes - unless you can create a greater opposite force, accelerate it and slow things down. So a crash is inevitable.
Banks not lending and interest rates are just the tip…and the amount of variables and the vastness of the discussion go way beyond the scope of this thread and forum.
A typical market correction period is 10% over a period of a few weeks. Since the market has been hovering around 40,000, a 10% correction would be about 4,000 or, in other words, a drop to around 36,000. The market isn’t there yet for it to be considered a market correction.
During company earnings reporting period, speculators will buy up a stock when they think the earnings will be good and then dump the stock to take a quick profit right at or around when the earnings is reported. A lot of this is done as programmed computer trading.
Years ago … a drop of 900 was doom and gloom but, in today’s market, 900 is only 2.25% change which is tolerable on any one day. If you see a sell off like every day over a two week period, then one should be concerned.
A day like today is a bargain hunt day for us. We look for the stocks that are being hit hard but have a solid track record of bouncing back.
It’s all in one’s perspective of whether the sky is falling or not.
Since I was a broker when the REAL crash happened in 1987, today is a pimple on the butt of an elephant.
I was a technical trader back then so I looked at the charts for today as a refresher. The DJIA broke a trendline going back to the end of May about. I’m no longer licensed so I can’t give ‘advice’ but if it breaks under (about) 38111.38 it’s going to likely get ugly.
What no one (except those of us that lived and breathed the market back then) remembers is that the DJIA was down about 100 points on Friday before REALLY crashing on Monday.
Not a prediction of any kind, but those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it ( George Santayana among others).
It was an ‘interesting day’ and there were a number of suicides as a result. A broker or two got shot over it as well! We lost almost 25% of the market value that day. Fortunately I only had one small account that got a margin call and the liquidation of the position paid for it.
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Nasdaq is now in a correction. According to Bloomberg
And my previous comment on jobs data was not as bleak as later figures indicate
Nonfarm payrolls rose by 114,000 — one of the weakest prints since the pandemic — and job growth was revised lower in the prior two months. The unemployment rate unexpectedly climbed for a fourth month to 4.3%, triggering a closely watched recession indicator and hammering stocks
I have sufficient cash on hand to ride out this storm whether it is a category 1 or category 4 because I have not felt the market has reflected the economy for many years. As Greenspan famously commented about irrational exuberance.
Unfortunately, a recession will affect my RMDs and lock in losses.
Came here to say this…
The sky is not falling.
Stock markets fluctuate.
Today is a reaction.
The more relevant market indicator for ecommerce at this time is over in https://test.sellersasksellers.com/t/cnbc-amazon-shares-slide-on-revenue-miss-disappointing-guidance-for-third-quarter/4486?u=papy:
So consumers are still shopping, maybe making even more purchases, but buying less expensive items.
For retailers like us, what that means is that we can reduce our margins by reducing prices, add to our catalogs with better-margin but cheaper products, or pivot out of certain categories.
Right now, we should be using these data points–market, ASP, jobs, manufacturing, etc–to plan for Q4.
- Am I going to offer fewer products to niche Buyers at higher prices?
- Am I going to lower prices to compete in a broader segment?
- Am I going to expand my offerings with a range of margins and price points?
- Am I going to focus on targeted gifts, seasonal decor, holiday themes, or am I going to focus on staples?
There’s a lot to unpack, but “the economy” is a Whole Big Thing. Remember, literally anyone can buy and sell stocks. ANYONE. 
It is a presidential election year. Historically my business records show from July through Election day sales are down EVERY presidential election year. Tends to be the same in retail too. Nothing to do with the candidates, just the way it is.
Am I worried, nope!
This year the dip will probably be more than usual.
Purely on the basis that this election is supercharged and people are spending a lot of time talking and reading about it. That means less time for shopping to buy crap they don’t need
The market today is less troubling than some of the economic numbers which helped trigger the market fall.
In particular, the labor market numbers are disturbing. That is independent of arguments which we need not have on this site as to why they have occurred.
More unemployment means less demand for the products we and other businesses sell. Even if we question previous job creation numbers and their meaning, less job creation is not good for business and the economy.
The sky is not going to fall on everyone, but it might on the most vulnerable, and all of us care, to some extent, about them. Whether their plight affects us directly or not.
I agree, in all respects; I’m reminded of a phrase from a long-ago proffered sermon concerning for whom the bell tolls:
"…No man is an island
Entire of itself …" - John Donne, Devotions: Meditations XVII, 1624 (Nunc lento sonitu dicunt, morieris)
“The lingering question now is whether the concerns that pushed the market into a cascade of selling are alleviated,” [Krosby] said. “Pockets of volatility are expected to continue as August and September give way to a calmer seasonal period, however, it’s important to remember pockets of opportunity are always on the other side of the storm.”
The U.S. inflation rate as measured by the consumer price index has fallen significantly in the past two years but remains above the 10-year median of 2% growth, which is also the rate the Federal Reserve targets.
The U.S. stock market as measured by the S&P 500 has risen more than 11% in 2024 and 23.7% since May of last year
From what I’ve seen, the dip the last few days is being caused mostly by Japan and the Yen tanking. Market seems to corrected a little yesterday, I suspect more correction today.
My Vanguard investments will remain invested, not worried.
Confirmed 
Investors pointed to the rapid dissipation of market anxiety as further evidence that last week’s meltdown was fueled by the unwinding of massive leveraged positions, including yen-funded carry trades, rather than longer-term concerns such as global growth.
Also today, hopefully good news for resellers, smaller manufacturers, and consumers for Q4 
BTW, now is the time to vacation in Japan!
Again, interpret cautiously…
MarketWatch | S&P 500 bursts back with most sharp daily gains in any month since June 2023 | 20 August 2024
The numbers might be revised upward at a later date.
The real wild card will be what the markets do or do not do. I bet on do not do. And whether this means the FED will prove to have waited too long before lowering interest rates. If the have waited too long, it might imperil a “soft landing”. I have not yet seen or heard an economic talking head raise this issue. But the “strong jobs growth” was a reason for not cutting rates sooner.
Regardless of your political beliefs, you need to take economic data with a grain of salt. What looks like it supports your position today, might not tommorrow.