WALL STREET, Manhattan — It was a case of whiplash on Wall Street on Monday, which had an effect on your street as well, in a variety of ways.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the mainstream index of the market, had its largest point drop in history. It had never dropped farther than 800 points in a day.
On Monday, minutes after the opening bell, it fell more than 1,000 points, plunging 1,089 points before regaining most of its losses, only to go south again, closing down about 600 points.
The results of the down-then-up-then-down day were spelled out as much by the power brokers on Wall Street as they were by everyday New Yorkers, present on The Street for their desk jobs or to sight-see.
"[It affects] my retirement and my living now," said Stu Seidman, a Midwood, Brooklyn resident who was outside the stock exchange Monday afternoon, showing the sights to his cousins from Toronto.
Carmen Rodriguez, an administrative assistant at a major Wall Street financial firm, said that she was trying not to get anxious about the situation, with mixed results.
"I can't lose sleep over it," she told PIX11 News, but, she said, regarding the volatile performance of her retirement fund, "You look at your account and you're like, 'Oh my God, I hope this stops.'"
Even workers with no retirement fund or pension, or people with no job, who want one, can't easily advance without a steady, stable market.
Thirty year veteran trader Peter Tuchman of Quattro M Securities was on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor as stocks plummeted, and he remained there until they'd regained many of their losses. He went back onto the floor after lunchtime to see stocks plunge again, though not as badly. He said there's no need to panic just yet, although there's been cause for concern.
"The selling was with conviction this morning," Tuchman told PIX11 News. He also pointed out that many traders thought that the indexes could have gone even lower than they did in the first minutes of trading on Monday.
He cautioned, "The fear's not over yet," but added that the fact that stocks were able to rally back from their early-in-the-day low point speaks to the strength of the U.S. economy.
It's worth pointing out as well that even through the 1089 point drop represents a 6.6 percent decrease in the market's value, it's by no means the greatest loss of value the Dow has seen in a day. On October 19, 1987, the index fell 22.6%. Oct. 28, 1929 was the beginning of a fall off that led to the Great Depression. On that day, the Dow lost 12.8% of its value.
Also, since the Great Recession of 2008, when the Dow's loss of 777.68 was its greatest same-day point loss prior to Monday, the market overall has grown more than 200% in value. In the last year, the loss of value overall is 11%.
Weakness in the Chinese economy, which has been the engine of world economic growth so far this decade, has been cited as the main cause for recent world stock market declines. On Monday, the Chinese market lost 8.5% of its value.
