Dow Jones Today Slumps as Italian Political Instability Rocks Markets

The Dow Jones today fell over 150 points in pre-market trading as a political crisis in Italy threatened the economic stability of the Eurozone. Hours before a populist coalition was expected to take control of the Italian parliament, Italian President Sergio Mattarella refused to appoint a euro-skeptic economist to an important government post, forcing a breakdown of the coalition.

Over the weekend, Italy’s prime minister appointed a former International Monetary Fund official as interim prime minister in an effort to form a new government and restore order to Europe’s third-largest economy.

Here are the numbers from Monday for the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq:

Index Previous Close Point Change Percentage Change
Dow Jones 24753.09 -58.67 -0.24%
S&P 500 2721.33 -6.43 -0.24%
Nasdaq 7433.85 9.42 0.13%

Now here’s a closer look at today’s most important market events and stocks.

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The Top Stock Market Stories for Tuesday

  • Dow Jones Today Slumps as Italian Political Instability Rocks MarketsThe euro has plunged to its lowest point against the U.S. dollar in 2018 thanks to political problems in Europe. The breakdown of power in Italy has raised new concerns about the nation’s ability to repay its debts, as the spread between German and Italian bonds has widened. Market instability has also spread to Spain, where the nation’s parliament is preparing to vote on whether to oust Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and his party.
  • Oil prices slid on news that OPEC and Russia will consider hikes in production during a meeting in Vienna, Austria, on June 22. The news accompanied reports that U.S. production is expected to rise throughout the summer. The price of WTI oil sat at $67.20 per barrel. The Brent crude oil price recovered this morning, adding 1%, to hit $76.12.
  • Canadian banks are under pressure this morning over a major breach by cyber criminals. The Bank of Montreal (NYSE: BMO) and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (NYSE: CM) – the two largest banking institutions in the country – announced that roughly 90,000 customers’ data may have been stolen. This would be the first major cybersecurity event to happen in Canada involving financial firms.

Three Stocks to Watch Today: CRM, SBUX, MOMO

  • Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) will lead a busy day of earnings reports on Wall Street. The cloud computing giant is set to report fiscal first-quarter 2019 numbers after the bell on Tuesday.
  • Starbucks Corp. (Nasdaq: SBUX) will temporarily close about 8,000 locations on Tuesday to train roughly 175,000 employees on racial bias. The training sessions were announced after two African American men were arrested at a location in Philadelphia while waiting for a third party to arrive.
  • Shares of Momo Inc. (Nasdaq: MOMO) popped more than 9% after the Chinese social media firm easily beat earnings expectations this morning. The company owns a number of different media firms, including online dating sites in China. The firm’s monthly active users jumped by 21% compared to the same time in 2017.
  • Look for additional earnings reports from VMWare Inc. (NYSE: VMW), Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ), JA Solar Holdings Co. Ltd. (Nasdaq: JASO), Momo Inc. (Nasdaq: MOMO), HEICO Corp. (NYSE: HEI), and Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp. (NYSE: BAH).

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About the Author

Garrett Baldwin is a globally recognized research economist, financial writer, consultant, and political risk analyst with decades of trading experience and degrees in economics, cybersecurity, and business from Johns Hopkins, Purdue, Indiana University, and Northwestern.

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