🗞 "Flash Crash" on Wall Street

Downtrend on the US Stock Exchange: Recently, the Dow Jones Industrial had reached a record high - now lost the leading index almost 1600 points. Experts spoke of the "worst day in years".

At the US stock exchanges panic broke out on the later part of Monday. At times, the Dow Jones Industrial slid nearly 1,600 points below the 24,000 mark, more points than ever on a single trading day. The previous annual profits have been rapidly dissipating, as have profits since the beginning of December.

At the same time, the fear barometer, the Vix index, which measures the price fluctuations of the S&P 500, jumped almost 100 percent. The last time the volatility index jumped sharply, worries over the Chinese economy led to a sellout on the stock exchanges. This time concerns about a faster than expected turnaround of interest rate could be the reason.

With a minus of 4.60 percent to 24,345.75 points, the world's most important stock market barometer went out of trading. The Dow ultimately lost 1175 points. Only a few days ago, his latest record high had been cheered at 26,616 points. The broad-based S&P 500 collapsed on Monday by 4.10 percent to 2648.94 points. The technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 lost 3.91 percent to 6495.92 points.

Market analyst Craig Erlam from foreign exchange broker Oanda spoke of a "flash crash" on Wall Street. Portfolio manager Thomas Altmann of the asset manager QC Partners added: "Many investors are downright panicked." Market watcher Daniel Saurenz of Feingold Research saw in the free fall of the Dow "the blackest day for the stock markets for years".