Dow drops more than 500 points amid Fed, Delta variant jitters
CBSN
Benchmark U.S. stock indexes opened sharply lower on Monday as investors assessed a bevy of risks, including a possible shift in Federal Reserve guidance this week that could hurt corporate profits.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 500 points, or 1.5%, shortly after the start of trade, while the broader S&P 500 fell 1.5% and technology-heavy Nasdaq sank 1.8%. The decline extends a slide for Wall Street this month, with the S&P 500 losing nearly 1% last week.
Although September is historically a weak month for stocks, a range of factors is weighing on market sentiment. Investors remain concerned that the latest COVID-19 wave could slow economic growth, while also keeping a close eye a push by congressional Democrats to raise taxes on wealthy Americans and on big corporations. Fear is also mounting that Evergrande Group, a major Chinese property developer, could default on its debt and trigger a financial crisis.
President Joe Biden said France was America's "first friend" at its founding and is one of its closest allies more than two centuries later as he was honored with a state visit Saturday by French President Emmanuel Macron aimed at showing off their partnership on global security issues and easing past trade tensions.
The Consumer Federal Protection Bureau last week launched an inquiry into what the agency is calling "junk fees in mortgage closing costs." These additional fees, involving home appraisal, title insurance and other services, have spiked in recent years and can add thousands of dollars to the final cost of buying a home.
Retired Maj. Gen. William Anders, the former Apollo 8 astronaut who took the iconic "Earthrise" photo showing the planet as a shadowed blue marble from space in 1968, was killed Friday when the plane he was piloting alone plummeted into the waters off the San Juan Islands in Washington state. He was 90.