Dow Jones Industrial Average Plunges 440 Points as China Imposes Aggressive Trade War Measures

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell over 440 points in morning trading as global markets plunged on escalating trade war tensions. On Monday, Chinese officials announced plans to provide additional financial support to the nation's struggling economy and stock market.

Industrial giants Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) and 3M Co. (NYSE: MMM) fell well short of analysts' expectations in the wake of escalating trade tensions, rattling investor confidence and sending markets into a tailspin. While losses are likely to mount during Tuesday's trading session, there are clear ways to sustain your investments - and even profit. Check them out here...

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

Now here's a closer look at today's Money Morning insight, the most important market events, and stocks to watch.

The Top Stock Market Stories for Tuesday

• McDonald's Corp. (NYSE: MCD) leads a busy day of earnings reports on Tuesday. The fast food giant was expected to report earnings per share (EPS) of $1.98 in top of $5.25 billion in revenue. And the firm easily topped those expectations, reporting EPS of $2.10 on top of $5.37 billion in revenue. Despite its stock being down 3% in 2018, the firm has seen positive momentum from menu changes, adoption of kiosk menus, and its partnership with delivery service UberEats.
• Marijuana stocks pulled back Monday as investors continued to monitor ongoing developments in Canada, where the government just legalized cannabis. Take our advice: Use this recent pullback as an opportunity to jump in on cannabis stocks. If you missed the recent run-up, you've been handed a gift. And it's all coming together on the day that the United States will experience its first ever Cannabis Summit hosted live tonight. At 1 p.m. ET, former Speaker of the House John Boehner will join us live.

Stocks to Watch Today: GS, NFLX, WFC

• Is investment inequality starting to abate, or has Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) simply run out of potential high-net-worth clients? On Monday, Goldman announced that it will begin to provide wealth management services to individuals with less than $10 million. The firm said that its Marcus brand will soon include a digital wealth product catering to traditional consumers. The new products could include checking accounts, credit cards, and mortgages in the future.
• Shares of Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) are generating buzz on news that the company is seeking another $2 billion in funding. The streaming giant claims it will use this massive sum to bolster its roster of original content and to fund possible acquisitions. This is the third time in just a year that the company has gone to the markets and offered unsecured notes as a means to obtain funding. Last October, the company offered $1.6 billion in notes, and in April it offered $1.9 billion in notes.
• Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) is once again drawing negative headlines. On Monday, the New York Attorney General accused the bank of failing to inform investors about the ongoing, toxic culture than fueled the firm's embarrassing fake-accounts scandal.
• Look for additional earnings reports from Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN), Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT), Juniper Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: JNPR), Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), JetBlue Airways Corp. (NASDAQ: JBLU), Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN), Harley-Davidson Inc. (NYSE: HOG), and Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT), and Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF).

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