The stock market launched a major comeback in the final trading hours Monday after a brutal trading day that was set to break negative records. In the end, all major indexes ended in the green.
Earlier Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average thrashed around, shedding more than a thousand points before surging back to end the day higher than Friday’s close, up 99 points to 34,364.50.
The S&P 500 had moved into correction territory, down about 11% since its most recent high recorded Jan. 3. But it, too, bounced out of it, ending the day about 0.3% higher, or 8% down from Jan. 3.
Had the 11% sell off held, it would have been the worst start of the year on record for the S&P 500, according to Bloomberg data going back more than nine decades.
Still, experts anticipate rough seas ahead. Last week was the worst trading week since March 2020 and this week, the sell-off uncertainty is fueled in large part by the Federal Reserve’s meeting Tuesday and Wednesday, where the board will discuss plans to tackle inflation by further tightening monetary policy.
“With what the markets are doing, I think they’re going to have to take it a little easier on the hawkish talk especially because the market definitely freaked out over [quantitative tightening],” economist Ed Yardeni said on CNBC midday.
Meanwhile, the president’s press secretary brushed off the day’s major dips, even before the markets staged a comeback.
“Unlike his predecessor, the president does not look at the stock market as a means by which to judge the economy,” Press Secretary Jen Psaki said when asked if the president thought the Dow’s dip was a ‘big deal.’