Stock Market Has Worst Start To 2nd Quarter Since Great Depression
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- After a strong start to the year, Monday was the worst start to a second quarter for stocks since the Great Depression.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 700 points Monday afternoon. Shares rebounded some, but the big board still closed down 458 points. The NASDAQ dropped 193 points and the S&P fell 50.
The severe swing had financial analysts warning: Don't panic.
"It's a very emotional market," financial analyst Tim Ghrisky said. "There are certain days that often result in more volatility."
The drastic one-day drop was partially driven by a sell-off of tech industry giants, CBS2's Jessica Layton reported. Under fire from President Donald Trump, Amazon ended Monday down more than 5 percent, and Facebook tumbled 2.75 percent on the heels of the controversy over how it handled users' data.
The market tank also comes after tensions heightened over trade.
Less than two weeks after Trump announced tariffs on some Chinese imports, Beijing has fired back, slapping $3 billion worth of tariffs on 128 American products.
"The fear is an escalation, whether this becomes a trade tit-for-tat conflict which escalates into a trade war – that would be a terrible thing for each of those economies," Jill Schlesinger, CBS News' business analyst, explained.
"They want to show Trump, if you keep going, we're going to hit you hard," said Iam Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group.
At the annual Easter Egg Roll and on Twitter, the president went after Democrats on an entirely different issue, blaming them for failing to protect the so-called Dreamers brought to the U.S. illegally as children.
"Democrats have really let them down. It's a shame," he told reporters.
He tweeted, "DACA is dead because the Democrats didn't care or act, and now everyone wants to get onto the DACA bandwagon... No longer works. Must build Wall and secure our borders with proper Border legislation. Democrats want No Borders, hence drugs and crime!"
During the recent budget battle in Washington, however, Democrats said it Trump who turned down a deal.
"We gave him every penny he asked for over 10 years and fixed the Dreamer problem, and he said no," Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, said.
The president is now focusing on Mexico to keep people from entering the U.S. illegally, saying he will end the North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA, if Mexico does not do more to stop illegal immigration.
Also on Monday, the Kremlin said Trump suggested he and Vladimir Putin meet soon at the White House to discuss the arms race. But White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders denied plans for such a meeting were being made.
