28Sep2015 Market Close: Averages Close Down, DOW Off 313 Points, Nasdaq Off 3%, Investors Very Worried About Global Growth

Written by Gary

U.S. stocks slid today ending lower as global growth weighs, also drawn down by the health-care sector, as politicians stepped up scrutiny of drug pricing. U.S. Markets ended lower with the Dow finishing down 313 points, or 1.9% and the S&P 500 sinks 50 points, or 2.6%. Oil prices end lower, almost 3%, on weak demand outlook, but WTI remains above $43 closing at $44.48.

Todays S&P 500 Chart

The Market in Perspective

Here are the headlines moving the markets.
	Stocks Battered To Black Monday Lows Amid Credit Crash, Biotech Bloodbath, & Commodity Carnage Just because… The epicenter of today’s earthquake was Biotech and Corporate Bonds… Biotechs were bloodbath’d – IBB dropped almost 8% today alone – the biggest drop since August 2011 – testing back to Black Monday lows and now unchanged since October 2014… This is the longest losing streak for Biotechs since Lehman Investors should not worry though… IBB Update pic.twitter.com/S6jQOysMiW — Stalingrad & Poorski (@Stalingrad_Poor) September 28, 2015 High yield bond prices have fallen for 12 of the last 13 days and today’s decline was the biggest daily drop since Nov 2011, breaking towards Nov 2011 spike lows… In context – this means HYG is unchanged since Lehman!! * * * All the major US Equity Indices are at or below Black Monday Lows…
	Found On A Volkswagen In Portland Presented with no comment… h/t @DonDraperClone
	JetBlue expands U.S.-Cuba service ahead of expected travel opening HAVANA (Reuters) – JetBlue will add a second charter flight from New York’s John F. Kennedy airport to Havana, expanding charter service ahead of an expected opening of commercial air travel between the two countries, the company said on Monday.
	Fiat Chrysler U.S. union workers deal more blows to tentative pact DETROIT (Reuters) – United Auto Workers union members at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV’s U.S. factories are increasingly rejecting a proposed national labor agreement recommended by union leaders, expressing discontent with a compromise that sacrificed larger wage hikes for future investment in U.S. operations.
	U.S. court hears challenge to $5.7 billion Visa, MasterCard settlement NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court on Monday weighed whether to uphold the approval of an estimated $5.7 billion antitrust settlement by MasterCard Inc and Visa Inc with merchants over credit card fees despite the objection of several major retailers.
	Germany investigates VW’s ex-boss over fraud allegations BERLIN (Reuters) – German prosecutors launched an investigation on Monday into fraud allegations against former Volkswagen boss Martin Winterkorn, showing their determination to get quickly to the bottom of a scandal over rigged emissions tests that has rocked the global car industry.
	Oil down nearly 3 percent on Wall Street, China; Cushing draw limits loss NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil prices fell nearly 3 percent on Monday, pressured by tumbling equities on Wall Street and weak Chinese economic data, although an estimated drawdown in crude stocks at the key U.S. storage hub appeared to limit losses, traders said.
	Wall Street drops as China data rattles investors (Reuters) – U.S. stocks fell sharply in afternoon trading on Monday and were set for their worst third-quarter performance in four years as investors worried about the health of China’s economy and its potential impact on the timing of a U.S. interest rate increase.
	Alcoa to split into two as aluminum glut batters legacy business CHICAGO (Reuters) – Alcoa Inc said Monday it will break itself in two, separating a faster growing plane and car parts business from traditional aluminum smelting operations as shareholders seek higher returns amid a commodity slump.
	Glencore slumps 30 percent as debt fears grow LONDON (Reuters) – Shares in mining and trading company Glencore fell almost 30 percent and closed at a record low on Monday over concerns it is not doing enough to cut its debt to withstand a prolonged fall in global metals prices.
	Investors Pull Back From Junk Bonds Investors are pulling back from the junk-bond market, in a shift that threatens to slow the global mergers-and-acquisitions boom.
	Bernanke & Yellen Have Engineered A Financial Markets Neutron Star Submitted by Tim Price via The Cobden Centre, As a child I was fascinated by the concept of a neutron star. A neutron star is the tiny but immensely dense thing that’s left after a massive star explodes. Imagine something eight times as massive as our sun packed into a 12 mile diameter sphere. Gravity compresses the surviving material so profoundly that its protons and electrons are squashed into neutrons. Just how dense ? A single teaspoon’s worth of a neutron star would weigh a billion tons. That presupposes you could actually get close enough to extract a teaspoon’s worth. In reality, the gravitational pressure would reduce your body to a very thin smear on the surface of the star. Very little escapes the gravitational force of a neutron star. I never expected to encounter a neutron star but Messrs Bernanke and Yellen at the US Federal Reserve have been kind enough to engineer one for us. Like CERN it’s been something of an international collaboration – Messrs Carney and Draghi have also pitched in to do their bit. The hybrid of Quantative Easing (QE) and Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP), our current monetary neutron star has succeeded in collapsing the yields of just about every financial asset. The tractor beam of ZIRP in particular is difficult to evade. Just ask Janet Yellen. After one of the most widely anticipated FOMC meetings in history, she has boldly decided to do precisely nothing. Today’s investors are not exactly a lucky generation. Assuming they’ve survived two precipitous declines in stock markets in the course of a decade, they’re now faced with overpriced stocks, overpriced bonds, overpriced everything. …
	Apple reports record sales of iPhone 6s, 6s Plus in first weekend (Reuters) – Apple said on Monday it had sold more than 13 million iPhone 6s and 6s Pluses during their first weekend of availability in 12 markets, setting a record for its marquee product.