Biggest stock drop in the US since May causes ripple of worries in market

Stocks on Wall Street closed dramatically lower on Monday, handing the S&P 500 index its biggest drop in four months. The market observed increasing worries about heavily indebted Chinese real estate developers and how they could cause damage to investors. Another cause of concern for the investors signalling by the US Federal Reserve about its plans to pull back some of the support measures that have aided the market and economy. 

The S&P 500 fell 75.26 points, or 1.7%, to 4,357.73, it’s biggest drop since May. At one point, the benchmark index was down 2.9%, the biggest decline since last October. The S&P 500 was coming off two weeks of losses and is on track for its first monthly decline since January. The S&P 500 has gone an unusually long time without a pullback of 5% or more.

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 614.41 points, or 1.8%, to 33,970.47. The blue-chip index was briefly down 971 points. The Nasdaq fell 330.06 points, or 2.2%, to 14,713.90. The Hang Seng, Hong Kong’s main index, dropped 3.3% for its biggest loss since July. European markets fell about 2%.

“What’s happened here is that the list of risks has finally become too big to ignore,” said Michael Arone, chief investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors. “There’s just a lot of uncertainty at a seasonally challenging time for markets.”

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The worries have primarily centered on Evergrande in recent days. Despite being one of China’s biggest real estate developers, it looks like it might be unable to repay the debts. It is being feared that this could cause a chain-reaction leading to collapse of the financial system. 

It’s a product of how tightly connected global markets have become, and it’s a concept the financial world calls “contagion.”