02Apr2018 Market Close: Wall Street Gives Up 2018 Gains Amid Tech Selloff, Trade Fears, Worst Q2 Start Since The Great Depression, DOW Closed Down 459 Points

Written by Gary

The US equities main benchmarks nosedived today (SPY -2.2%), with the DOW falling to its lowest level of the year. DOW, SP 500 close below 200-day moving average for the first time since June of 2016.

Todays S&P 500 Chart

The Market in Perspective

Here are the headlines moving the markets.
	Wall Street gives up 2018 gains amid tech selloff, trade fears NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wall Street shares nosedived on Monday, with the Dow falling to its lowest level of the year and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq each poised for the biggest daily percentage drop since February 8, as investors fled technology stocks and trade war fears were stoked anew.
	Tesla said to make 2,000 Model 3s per week, stock down (Reuters) – Tesla Inc was reported to be making 2,000 of its Model 3 sedans per week, enough to ease stock market nerves around billionaire Elon Musk’s electric carmaker on Monday after a week dominated by news of a crash involving its semi-autonomous autopilot.
	Amazon shares fall 6 percent as Trump renews attack (Reuters) – Shares of Amazon.com Inc fell 6 percent on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump again attacked the online retailer over the pricing of its deliveries through the United States Postal Service and promised unspecified changes.
	Silicon Valley, Wall Street taking notes on Spotify debut NEW YORK (Reuters) – Spotify Technology SA’s unusual route to becoming a public company is a test case for other multibillion-dollar tech companies that are looking to sell their shares but are not in need of cash.
	DoubleLine’s Gundlach says bitcoin leads stock market movements NEW YORK (Reuters) – Bitcoin, the highly volatile digital currency, is proving to be the new stock market indicator, influential investor Jeffrey Gundlach said on Monday, adding that this is hardly just a “gut feeling” given the recent price movements.
	Hudson’s Bay shares drop after security breach at Saks, Lord&Taylor stores TORONTO (Reuters) – Hudson’s Bay shares dropped on Monday after the Canadian department store operator reported security breaches at some of its Saks Fifth Avenue, Saks OFF 5th and Lord & Taylor stores on Sunday.
	Apple plans to replace Intel chips in Macs with its own: Bloomberg (Reuters) – Apple Inc is planning to use its own chips in Mac computers beginning as early as 2020, replacing processors from Intel Corp , Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.
	China hits U.S. goods with tariffs as ‘sparks’ of trade war fly BEIJING (Reuters) – China has increased tariffs by up to 25 percent on 128 U.S. products, from frozen pork and wine to certain fruits and nuts, escalating a dispute between the world’s biggest economies in response to U.S. duties on imports of aluminum and steel.
	Blockchain executive Amber Baldet to leave JPMorgan NEW YORK (Reuters) – Amber Baldet, a blockchain program lead at JPMorgan Chase & Co , is leaving the bank to launch her own venture, JPMorgan said on Monday.
	Stocks Suffer Worst Q2 Start Since The Great Depression Well that really escalated quickly… After last week’s “paint the tape ahead of a long-weekend” melt-up into the close, the first trading day of the second quarter was a bloodbath… In fact the worst since The Great Depression… As David Rosenberg (@EconguyRosie) summed up so precisely: New math: every tweet by @realDonaldTrump subtracts 70 points off the Dow. Keep ’em coming. Woah…a ubiquitous opening bounce, then puked into Europe’s close, then another attempt to ignite momentum, fails and stocks puked into red for the year again…
	Wyoming Is Challenging The Fed, Can It Become America’s “Crypto Valley”? Authored by Tho Bishop via The Mises Institute, The DC Swamp continues to fester, but there is still interesting work being done at the State level. Particularly interesting is what we’ve seen so far this year in Wyoming. Earlier this month, the Wyoming legislature became the latest state to modify their state laws to challenge the Federal Reserve’s monopoly on money. As Mike Maharrey wrote for the Tenth Amendment Center: Titled the Wyoming Legal Tender Act, the new law defines gold and silver specie as “legal tender,” meaning it will be recognized as a medium of exchange for the payment of debts and taxes in the state. Practically speaking, gold and silver specie will be treated as money, putting it on par with Federal Reserve notes in Wyoming. The law defines specie as coins having gold or silver content, or refined bullion, coined, stampe …
	For The First Time Ever, Younger Americans Are Less Optimistic Than Their Parents Superficially, last week’s University of Michigan consumer confidence report could not have been better: rising above 101, it was the highest number since 2004 (even if it was driven entirely by rising optimism from poorer households, while those in the top third have started to lose faith in Trumponomics). However, less noted among the various survey questions was one troubling finding: for the first time in history, Americans younger than 35 are less optimistic, – and have less confidence in the economy – than older Americans, those aged 55 and over, which includes their parents. As the Deutsche Bank chart below shows, this has never happened in the 60 years the University of Michigan has been collecting data. This stark reversal in outlooks is hardly a surprise: as MartkWatch notes, Millennials shoulder more student loan debt than any other generation and face house prices that are far higher than their parents did at …
	Three’s A Crowd – Another Woman Sues Trump To Lift NDA First, there was ‘Stormy Daniels’ – the porn star suing President Trump to undo a non-disclosure agreement she signed about their alleged affair. Second, there is former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who is suing the National Enquirer to void a deal that she says forced her to stay silent about an affair she had with Trump. And now there’s a third woman seeking to overturn a pre-agreed secrecy deal.
	Why Tumbling Stocks Didn’t Tank Treasury Yields With stocks starting off the new quarter with a tumble, it makes sense that yields on long-term Treasurys have fallen. What is notable is that they have fallen so little.
	Why Trump Won’t Touch Moonshine The bankruptcy of the East Coast’s biggest oil refiner has raised uncomfortable questions around the politically charged market for ethanol.
	Spotify’s Unspoken Promise: A Different Business The streaming giant’s path to tech stardom involves developing a new business model in conflict with its current one.
	March 2018 Manufacturing Survey Growth Little Changed Written by Steven Hansen The ISM Manufacturing survey insignificantly declined and remained in expansion. The key internals are in expansion. The Markit PMI manufacturing Index is in positive territory and insignificantly improved.
	Low-income families are getting terrible financial advice online A recent Reddit thread shows some common misconceptions about poverty.
	Bond Report: 10-year Treasury yield ends at lowest in three months as stocks fall sharply Treasury prices rose on Monday, paring the earlier climb in yields, as a steep fall in the stock market sirs up haven-related buying in U.S. government paper
	CryptoWatch: Why is blockchain-of-choice Ethereum underperforming crypto rivals? Ethereum has become the blockchain of choice for new ICOs, software developers and programmers. So why does it lag bitcoin and other rivals?