U.S. Stocks Drop on Worries About Growth
October 02 2019 - 11:40AM
Dow Jones News
By Max Bernhard and Paul Vigna
U.S. stocks fell Wednesday after the latest private-sector jobs
report further stoked concerns about the economy.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 466 points, or 1.8%, while
the S&P 500 dropped 1.7% and the Nasdaq Composite lost
1.6%.
The ADP National Employment Report on Wednesday beat muted
expectations -- the private sector added 135,000 jobs in September,
above expectations. But the firm cut its August estimate by nearly
40,000, and the three-month average of 145,000 is down from 214,000
a year ago.
Altogether, it was the latest sign that businesses are turning
more cautious in the face of a weakening global economy.
"It feels like one thing after another the last couple of days,"
said David Laffertry, chief market strategist at Natixis. While the
ADP report was soft rather than outright weak, he said, "within the
context of other bad macro data the last couple of days, it's sort
of piling on."
Markets overseas continued to react to disappointing economic
data. The Stoxx Europe 600 was down 2.2%, with Germany's DAX 1.9%
lower and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 down 2.8%.
Germany's leading economics research institutes jointly lowered
their growth forecasts Wednesday for Europe's largest economy. They
cited slowing global demand for capital goods, structural changes
in the auto sector -- one of Germany's most important industries --
and political uncertainty.
"You've got Trump flattening, Warren surging, and Johnson
threatening," Mr. Lafferty said. "You've got this wet blanket of
geopolitical overhang in a market that's already struggling."
In U.S. equities, every sector fell. Technology, materials, and
industrials were all down around 2%. Intuit fell 3.1%. Mastercard
lost 2.7%. Microsoft fell 2.4%, and Apple lost 2.2%.
Air Products & Chemicals fell 3.3% and LyondellBassell
Industries dropped 2.6%.
If the manufacturing slowdown spreads to the still robust
service sector, this would increase pressure on the Federal Reserve
to cut rates again in October, said Stefan Schilbe, HSBC Germany's
chief economist. The Institute for Supply Management's services
sector report is due Thursday.
The market odds of a Fed rate cut in October rose to 72%
Wednesday morning, up from 53% a week ago, according to data from
CME's FedWatch tracker.
In Asia, South Korea's Kospi was down nearly 2% following news
that North Korea fired at least one missile off its east coast. The
move, seen as a show of strength, came after Pyongyang said it
would resume official nuclear talks with the U.S.
In Japan, the Nikkei fell 0.5% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was
down 0.2%. Mainland Chinese stock markets were closed for a
holiday.
In commodities, WTI crude fell 1.7% to $52.64 a barrel.
The yield on U.S. 10-year Treasurys was lower at 1.605%, from
1.638% Tuesday. Bond yields and prices move in opposite
directions.
Write to Max Bernhard at Max.Bernhard@dowjones.com and Paul
Vigna at paul.vigna@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 02, 2019 11:25 ET (15:25 GMT)
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