10/13/18

Stocks are down once again this morning. The Dow is off more than 200 points. This is after a dramatic sell-off yesterday.

Stock prices had their worst drop since February with the Dow Jones Industrial Average losing more than 3 percent of its value. And that sell-off rippled through international markets today, with stocks falling across Asia, and also across Europe.

Let's bring in NPR's Jim Zarroli, who's in New York. Hi there, Jim. Hi, David.

So how are the markets looking at this moment? Yeah, looks like another volatile day.

I mean, we had a brief period where stocks were positive right after they opened, but now they're dropping again. If it continues, this will be the sixth straight day the S&P 500 is down.

You know, it seems like the mood in the market has really changed. Investors are trying to come to grips with some of the big issues on the table.

Yeah. What has changed? What are investors coming to grips with? Well, one of the important things is interest rates. The Fed has been raising rates for a while now.

You have the central banks in Europe and Japan doing it as well. When that happens, it makes borrowing more expensive.

But it also - when rates go up, bonds become more attractive, so people take money out of stocks and put it in bonds. Also, this continuing trade tension with China - that's certainly a factor.

You know, we have this new agreement with Canada and Mexico, but it doesn't even really look like - that, like, we're talking with China.