Dow closes down 939 points (2.77%), S&P 500 down 3.63%, more than erasing yesterday's

[progree]

big gains.

The S&P 500 is down 13.9% from its Jan 3 all-time high, and down 13.3% for the year to date. Setting us back to early April 2021 levels, a bit over a year ago.

Still 8.8% above the Jan 19, 2021 last close before inaugural day.

https://finance.yahoo.com/

S&P 500: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5EGSPC/history?p=%5EGSPC

[Shermann]

1. The Nasdaq is really taking it on the chin: -4.17% nt

[progree]

2. At least April is over with, market-wise :)

S&P 500 dropped 8.8% in April.

[progree]

3. For the month of April: Dow down 4.9%, S&P 500 down 8.8%, Nasdaq down 13%

Emily McCormick, Yahoo Finance, 4/29/22

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/stock-market-news-live-updates-april-29-2022-222314612.html

The S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite each sank. The S&P 500 ended Friday's session lower by 3.6%, and dropped about 8.8% for April to post its worst monthly performance since March 2020. The Dow dropped 4.9% for the month. The Nasdaq Composite was the biggest laggard, sliding by more than 13% in April alone in the index's worst month since October 2008.

[FloridaBlues]

4. Hope this isn't a trend.

[peppertree]

5. But I suspect it will be - until the mid-terms anyway

Wall Street has learned how to use the market to handicap one or the other party's chances in a major election.

And you better believe they intend to do just that.

[Warpy]

6. It probably is

Corporations have been awash with cash for the last several years, especially over the last 2 years. Since they weren't interested in hiking pay for their workers or issuing bigger dividends and there was only so much the C level execs could sop up before the tar and feathers came out, they turned to stock buybacks, and they bought back one hell of a lot of it.

Now we're in a steep inflationary period and they're not awash in all that cash any more. While I don't see them dumping all that stock they bought up, I don't honestly see them buying more, either. That means a lot fewer dollars chasing the same stock and that means the market is headed for a hangover after a long binge. Small investors are facing the inflationary problem, too, and the pool of buyers is getting smaller as frills like food and shelter take precedence.

I'm just hoping the steep drops don't last long, they could turn really bad really quickly.