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Dow Jones off to worst new year start ever

By: Woodlands Online staff
| Published 01/07/2016

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UNITED STATES - The Dow dropped 392 points on Thursday. The wave of selling has knocked the Dow down 911 points, or more than 5 percent so far this year. That's the worst four-day percentage loss to start a year on record, according to FactSet stats that go back to 1897.

The S&P 500 fell 2.4 percent, while the Nasdaq tumbled 3 percent. Down over 6% in 2016, the Nasdaq is off to its bleakest start since 2000.

The latest scare came on Thursday as China's stock market crashed 7 percent overnight giving rise to speculation that China's stock market is in complete state of disarray. For the second time in four days, trading was suspended under new circuit breaker rules unveiled this week. Many observers believe the circuit breakers, which are aimed at easing volatility, are actually creating more chaos by causing investors to sell out of fear they won't be able to get their money out before trading is stopped. China held an emergency meeting on Thursday and decided to suspend the circuit breakers effective Friday.

New reports released this week reinforce concerns that China’s economy is slowing down more than investors realized. To exacerbate the problem, crude oil plummeted to the lowest level in more than 12 years.

To put it in perspective, the American stock market has surrendered a shocking 2.1 trillion dollars of value in just the last six days of market chaos.

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