Tuesday Briefing: Global Markets Fell

A wave of anxiety rippled through financial markets yesterday. Stocks fell in the U.S. and around the world as investors zeroed in on signs of a slowing American economy.

The drop extended a sell-off that began on Friday after the U.S. released a jobs report that showed the highest level of unemployment in nearly three years. This deepened fears that the world’s largest economy could be headed for slower growth.

In the U.S., the S&P 500 fell 3 percent, its worst day since September 2022. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index dropped 12.4 percent, its biggest one-day point decline. The FTSE 100, Britain’s benchmark index, had its worst day since July 2023, falling just over 2 percent.

There were other factors at play in the plunge: concerns that tech stocks had run up too far, too fast, and that a strengthening yen could hurt the prospects of Japanese companies and some global traders. In the U.S., some questioned whether the Federal Reserve may have waited too long before cutting interest rates. Here’s the latest on the market meltdown.

Time to sell? It’s tough to do nothing during this kind of market turmoil. But in this case, it’s your best option, Ron Lieber, our Your Money columnist, writes.