Stocks continue to fall, adding to biggest retreat of the year
CBSN
Wall Street is opening lower as worries build that the U.S. may be headed for a painful recession.
The S&P 500 fell 37 points, or nearly 1%, to 3,891 as of 11:40 a.m. EST Thursday. The Dow dropped 252 points, or 0.8%, to 33,044 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq was down 1.3%.
Reports showed weakness in several areas of the economy, including the housing industry and manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic region, though they weren't quite as bad as expected and the job market appears to remain healthy. They follow worse-than-expected readings a day earlier on retail sales, a cornerstone of the economy, and industrial production. Altogether, they show an economy slowing under the weight of last year's blizzard of rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.
A blistering heat wave that recently brought record-breaking temperatures to large sections of the southwestern United States, including several major cities, is forecast to continue this week as it tracks over much of the country on its way toward the East Coast. Meanwhile, meteorologists have warned that powerful storm weather could dump as much as a foot of rain, or more, on parts of Florida and potentially give rise to another round of tornado threats in central states. Metropolitan areas like Chicago may be affected by a possible twister.
After four days of voting, with more than 400 million people eligible across 27 countries, European voters have pulled the bloc's 720-seat parliament farther to the right than it has ever been. The European Parliament, for the next five years, will now have a record number of far-right legislators. Far-right parties made gains in Europe's top three economies — Germany, France and Italy — with gains by politicians who campaigned against immigration, against support for Ukraine and against climate policy.
Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference is typically a springboard for the company to announce new tech features for its software programs, and not as flashy as its yearly September event to trumpet its latest iPhone rollout. But this year, the WWDC could be a make-or-break moment for the tech giant.