Wall Street’s roller-coaster ride saw more gut-wrenching turns over the past week as investors came to terms with what appears to be a deep and painful economic slump.
The market faced an official declaration that the US economy is in recession — and has been for a year — and indications that conditions may be worsening.
In the week to Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.19 percent to 8.635.42, following a stunning 9.73 percent rise in the prior week.
The tech-studded NASDAQ shed 1.71 percent to 1,509.31 and the broad-market Standard & Poor’s 500 declined 2.25 percent to 876.07.
The market action was highly volatile as signs of deeper economic troubles resurfaced. One official report showed the US economy shed 533,000 jobs last month and more than 1 million in the past three months, pushing the unemployment rate to a 15-year high.
“Just when you thought that the US economic outlook couldn’t get any uglier, it goes ahead and does,” said Meny Grauman, economist at CIBC World Markets. “The running tally of payroll declines that the US economy is now racking up is pushing up the odds that this downturn is even deeper than many had contemplated.”
“The economy is now locked in a vicious downward spiral in which employment, incomes, and spending are collapsing together,” said economist Nigel Gault at IHS Global Insight, predicting a drop in fourth-quarter activity of between 5 percent and 6 percent annualized.
Other surveys showed extremely weak readings on the factory and service sectors, and reports from retailers showed consumers still clinging tightly to their wallets.
Brad Sorensen, analyst at Charles Schwab & Co, said the grim economic situation does not preclude a stock market rebound.
“We want to remind investors that the labor report is what we call a lagging indicator — meaning it is always behind the actual economic situation,” Sorensen said in a note to clients.
“We expect the bad economic data to continue for the foreseeable future, but note that the market typically starts to recover five to six months before the economy does,” he said.
Tuesday, the National Bureau of Economic Research, the panel recognized as the official arbiter of business cycles, said the US recession began in December last year, ending any doubt about the slump.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique