Dow Plunges More Than 1,100 Points

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A sell-off sent traders on a roller coaster ride on Wall Street Monday, with the Dow Jones industrial average ultimately dropping more than 1,100 points.

At one point, the Dow was down as much as 1,600 points, erasing away gains for the year in a matter of minutes.

The Dow recovered some of the losses – closing at 1,175 or 4.6 percent. The losses brought the Dow back below 25,000 points, a level it first crossed a month ago.

The heavy losses deepened a slump that began on Friday as investors worried that creeping signs of higher inflation and interest rates could derail the market's record-setting rally.

As CBS2's Alice Gainer reported, worried investors continued the sell-off Monday over fears of overheated markets and higher inflation. The drop on Monday marked the largest intra-day drop – down and up within the same day – for the Dow in its history.

CBS News Business Analyst Jill Schlesinger On What The Stock Market Drop Means You:

So what is going on?

The market slump began Friday following a positive jobs report – wages are up. Investors have worries about higher inflation, and they are concerned that the Fed will raise interest rates.

Jerome Powell was officially sworn in as the new head of the Federal Reserve on Monday. The Fed planned on raising interest rates three different times this year, but if inflation picks up, it could raise them more often.

But overall, people who spoke to CBS2 didn't seem too concerned about the market plunge.

"I'm not worried at all," said John Gale of Bushwick, Brooklyn.

"It's not unexpected there would be some kind of correction at this point," said Tom Garry of Westfield, New Jersey.

That is exactly what wealth advisor Bob Fuest thinks too.

"Most money managers wanted this course correction, which means if they wanted it, they're going to sell into it," he said.

Fuest said if you have cash on the sidelines, put it in specific sectors.

"So for instance, utilities are very interest-rate sensitive. You may not want to go into utilities right now . Real estate investment trusts -- very interest-rate sensitive. You have to be very specific about the type of RETS you go into. You want them to be asset-holding RETS, not interest-rate RETS."

Above all, Fuest said, "My advice to investors is please do not panic."

As of late Monday, President Donald Trump remained silent over the market. He has tweeted about it in the past.

But a White House spokesman did say Monday, "Markets do fluctuate in the short term."

And as CBS2's Tony Aiello reported, experts emphasized that the percentage drop of 4.6 percent was not even in the top 20.

"Right now I'm holding still. Because I was expecting it to drop a little bit but I think it is going down just so it can go up some more!" said John Gale of Bushwick.

In fact, it looks like the sell-off may continue into Tuesday, as markets digest the impact of growing employment and wage growth of close to 3 percent.

"If you're an investor, what that 2.9 percent triggered was a feeling of: 'Wait a second, are things growing faster than we anticipate?' Could the general rate of inflation be ticking up?'" said CBS News Business Analyst Jill Schlesinger.

Some analysts say, ironically, President Trump's tax cuts could create conditions for inflation and rein in the bull market that he so often brags about.

"The big question is, how long is this going to last? How big is it going to be?" said global economic analyst Rana Foroohar. "There's a lot of people -- I'm one of them -- that have been saying, hey, you know Wall Street and Main Street have been disconnected for a number of years now. We need a correction. It's natural."

KEEPING SCORE: The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 2 points, or 1.9 percent, to 2,709 by 2:36 p.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones industrial average gave up 552 points, or 2.2 percent, to 24,972. The Nasdaq composite fell 101 points, or 1.4 percent, to 7,140. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks was down 25 points, or 1 percent, to 1,522.

The S&P 500 is now down 5 percent from its latest record high, set January 26. Investors are worried about evidence of rising inflation in the U.S. Increased inflation might push the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates more quickly, which could slow down economic growth by making it make it more expensive for people and businesses to borrow money. And bond yields haven't been this high in years. That's making bonds more appealing to investors compared with stocks.

But CBS2's Aiello noted that if you are one of the millions invested in funds that track the S&P 500, a broader measure of market health, you are still up 16 percent since President Donald Trump took office.

WELLS FARGO PLUNGES: Wells Fargo dropped $5.32, or 8.3 percent, to $58.75. Late Friday the Fed said it will freeze Wells Fargo's assets at the level where they stood at the end of last year until it can demonstrate improved internal controls. The San Francisco bank also agreed to remove four directors from its board.

WAKING UP: The stock market has been unusually calm for more than a year. The combination of economic growth in the U.S. and other major economies, low interest rates, and support from central banks meant stocks could keep rising steadily without a lot of bumps along the way. Experts have been warning that that wouldn't last forever.

The decline over the last few days isn't large by historic standards, but stocks haven't suffered a 5 percent drop since the two days after Britain voted to leave the European Union in June 2016. They recovered those losses within days. The market hasn't gone through a 10 percent drop since early 2016, when oil prices were plunging as investors worried about a drop in global growth, which could have sharply reduced demand. U.S. crude hit a low of about $26 a barrel in February of that year.

SWEETENED OFFER: Chipmaker Broadcom raised its offer for competitor Qualcomm to $121 billion in cash and stock, or $82 per share, and called the bid its best and final offer. It had offered $103 billion for Qualcomm, and that company says it will review the bid. Broadcom rose $2.04 to $237.52.

However Qualcomm dipped $2.61, or 4 percent, to $63.46 after analysts said Apple may end a deal with Qualcomm and have Intel make chips for futures iPhone models instead. Intel gained 53 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $46.68.

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude oil fell $1.30, or 2 percent, to $64.15 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, the standard for international oil prices, lost 97 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $67.61 a barrel in London.

Wholesale gasoline lost 3 cents to $1.85 a gallon. Heating oil shed 3 cents to $2.02 a gallon. Natural gas sank 10 cents to $2.75 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Exxon Mobil lost $3.79, or 4.5 percent, to $80.74 and Chevron gave up $3.20, or 2.7 percent, to $115.38. Both companies reported disappointing fourth-quarter results on Friday and are coming off their biggest losses in years.

MARKET LEADERS LOSING: Almost three-fourths of the stocks on the New York Stock Exchange traded lower. Some of the largest losses went to companies that have done exceptionally well over the last year. Alphabet, Google's parent company, lost $29.99, or 2.7 percent, to $1,089.21. Chipmaker Nvidia fell $8.69, or 3.7 percent, to $224.83. 3M skidded $6.23, or 2.5 percent, to $238.94.

BONDS: Bond prices receded after moving sharply higher on Friday. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 2.82 percent from 2.84 percent.

CURRENCIES: The dollar fell to 109.88 yen from 110.28 yen. The euro slipped to $1.2415 from $1.2451.

METALS: Gold declined 80 cents to $1,336.50 an ounce. Silver dipped 4cents to $16.67 an ounce. Copper rose 3 cents to $3.22 a pound.

BITCOIN WOES: Bitcoin prices and futures continued to sink. According to Coindesk, the price of bitcoin fell 15 percent to $6,957. It reached a high of almost $20,000 in December, and traded under $1,000 in early 2017. Many financial pros warn that bitcoin is in a speculative bubble that could burst anytime. On the CME, bitcoin futures plunged 19 percent to $6,975. They tumbled 18 percent to $6,950 on the Cboe.

GERMAN COALITION TALKS: Stocks in Europe also fell. Leading political parties in Germany, which is the largest economy in Europe, have struggled to form a government. Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Union bloc and the center-left Social Democrats are still in talks about extending their alliance of the past four years.

Britain's FTSE 100 lost 1.5 percent while France's CAC 40 slid 1.5 percent. The DAX in Germany shed 0.8 percent.

ASIA: Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 tumbled 2.6 percent and the South Korean Kospi shed 1.3 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index sank 1.1 percent.

(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)