But in just eight days of trade so far this year, $3.2 trillion has been wiped off global stock markets (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/32-trillion-has-been-wiped-off-global-stock-markets-so-far-this-year-2016-01-14).
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Stocks plunged Wednesday, bringing the widely watched Standard & Poor’s 500 index down 10 percent from its November peak.
U.S. stocks rallied Thursday, recovering from a rout the prior session, following strong earnings from JPMorgan Chase and a rebound in oil prices. While consumer stocks were down through the day, other sectors, including energy and industrial stocks, turned negative around midday.
Some of the biggest winners from past year, such as Netflix and Amazon, both of which doubled in value in 2015, also fell sharply. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 1.4%, with the blue-chip index led by Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) and Chevron (NYSE:CVX), up about 5% each.
The Nasdaq (^IXIC) composite fell 110 points, or 2.40 percent, to 4,506.
All 10 S&P 500 sectors were down Friday morning, with the biggest drops in information technology and energy stocks. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was 0.7 percent lower.
The market was coming off its best day this year and appeared to be headed for more gains early in the day.
The Dow lost 364.81 points, or 2.2 per cent, to 16,151.41 on Wednesday.
In Europe, Germany’s DAX dropped 1.7 percent and France’s CAC 40 slid 1.8 percent. “A greater focus will be put on data going forward into 2016 as concerns increase over the global economy and while the US retail sales is not the best indicator for the global picture, it is an important release that the Fed will be monitoring, especially since it is expected to decline to 0.0% from 0.2%”, said Simon Smith, chief economist at FxPro, in a note. Excluding volatile items such as food and energy prices, core prices rose 0.2%. In Asia, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 dived 2.7 percent, South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.9 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.6 percent.
Renewed fears over the Chinese economy triggered a selloff in crude oil prices.
The latest fall in China’s stock market followed a state-run media report that some Chinese banks were no longer accepting stocks as collateral for loans.
Benefiting from the increase by the price of crude oil, energy stocks saw substantial strength throughout the trading session. But the US could be strong.
But the slump in oil prices remains a concern for the pace of inflation, including for US Federal Reserve policy makers.
Wells Fargo (WFC – Get Report) slid 1.5% after disappointing quarterly revenue weighed on shares.
US government bond prices fell. No particular news sent oil prices higher.
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The yield on the benchmark USA 10-year Treasury briefly dipped below 2 percent Friday as traders fled to safe-harbor investments before bouncing back to 2.02 percent. Heavyweight Apple rose 2.2 per cent, Microsoft 2.9 per cent and Facebook 3.1 per cent.
