Finance
Why stocks tumbled today
If you are a stock-market bull, you had to love Wednesday’s open. That was the best part of the day.
Stocks shot up to their highs of the day within a half-hour of the open. And spent the rest of the day giving up all of their gains.
By 10 a.m., the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was up as much as 1.7%, the Nasdaq Composite jumped 2%, and the Dow Jones industrials were up 1.2%.
Steadily and surely, however, the gains evaporated entirely. The Nasdaq finished down 1.1% at 16,195.81. The S&P 500 was off 0.8% at 5,199.50.
The Dow’s loss was 0.6%, but the point loss was dramatic. The blue-chip index had been up as many as 480 points but ended down 234 points— a 714-point swing.
Related: Midday stock movers: Super Micro tumbles; Apple up; Tesla, Rivian down
Here’s why the market lost its mojo.
Tech stocks were weak. Super Micro Computer (SMCI) , maker of high-end servers that handle the loads generated by AI applications, reported disappointing earnings and fell a whopping 20% to $492.70. Dell Technologies (DELL) , a Super Micro Competitor, fell 7.2%. Nvidia (NVDA) dropped 5.1%. Intel fell 3.5%. Microsoft (MSFT) fell 0.3%. Apple (AAPL) , however, was up 1.3%.
Disney earnings didn’t impress. Walt Disney (DIS) shares fell 4.5% to $86.96. The company’s earnings were mixed. The entertainment giant reported the first profit ever for its Disney+ streaming service, and CEO Bob Iger sees more gains ahead. But the company said that attendance at its theme parks was softer than expected.
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Biotechs had a hard day. Dow component Amgen (AMGN) fell 5%. The Nasdaq Biotechnology Index was off 1.3%.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Bond yields were higher. Bad for everyone, especially home buyers. The 10-year Treasury yield jumped up to 3.96% from 3.897% on Tuesday.
The culprit: An auction of 10-year notes generated higher-than-expected yields as bond investors worry about higher federal deficits no matter who is elected president in November.
The iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) fell 0.7% to 95.91. It’s off a bit more than 4% since reaching $99.94 on Monday. Worries about the economy. While it’s hard to find anyone sure that a nasty recession is coming, uncertainty has crept into chatter.
The immediate worry is the weekly report on initial jobless claims due Thursday. The consensus estimate is about 241,000 claims. A week ago, claims came in at 249,000 when Wall Street was looking for 236,000.
Monday hangover continues. Lastly, after Monday’s ugly slump, it takes time for stocks to stabilize. Probably more time than investors and brokerages would like.
A symptom of the unease was Wednesday’s decline. There was another signal on Tuesday when a huge rebound from Monday debacle faded by about half. A big question is if the market will retest its Monday’s lows before it can start a real recovery. The S&P 500’s bottom on Monday was 5,119.26
Related: Veteran fund manager sees world of pain coming for stocks
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Finance
World Bank drops climate finance target amid US pressure
The World Bank is ditching its commitment to steer 45 percent of its spending toward projects with climate benefits, after facing pressure from the Trump administration.
The move, announced Monday following a meeting of the bank’s board of directors last week, marks a victory in President Donald Trump’s effort to purge climate policies from U.S. foreign policy. His administration has described the target as “distortionary” and “nonsensical.”
The bank preserved its broader Climate Change Action Plan — of which the 45 percent target was a key metric — just days before it was set to expire at the end of June. In addition to directing money toward climate projects, the plan provides technical support for helping countries reduce their greenhouse gas pollution and adapt to rising temperatures.
“We will retire the 45% climate co-benefits target,” the World Bank Group said in a statement, noting that it had “done significant work in answering client demand and needs.”
The bank’s work on climate “is and will remain firmly client driven, supporting them in delivering on their own ambitions as set out in their national plans and NDCs,” the statement added, referring to the nationally determined contributions countries submit under the Paris Agreement.
The decision to drop the climate finance target follows months of pressure from the Trump administration. People with knowledge of the negotiations said the U.S. was firm that the target must go despite other countries indicating their support for the bank’s climate goal. The U.S. has sway over the bank’s decisions as its largest shareholder.
Beyond the finance target, the Climate Change Action Plan also provides diagnostic reports on countries’ climate and development goals and aims to align lending with the Paris Agreement, which calls for preventing temperature rise from surpassing 2 degrees Celsius since the Industrial Revolution.
The bank said it would honor a board request to undertake an independent evaluation of the climate plan to determine if it’s helping countries grapple with rising temperatures. The decision effectively extends the plan beyond its expiration at the end of June.
The climate target was supported by many of the bank’s shareholders. It’s also been a prominent signal of the bank’s support for climate action at a time when the impacts of rising temperatures are accelerating.
“This is way, way away from where we should be for a responsible financial architecture,” said one official from a developed country who was directly involved in the negotiations and was granted anonymity to describe internal discussions.
The bank will continue to track and report on the amount of money going to projects with climate co-benefits. It exceeded its own target last year by directing 48 percent of its financing to climate-related projects.
Other climate targets embedded in agreements that govern different arms of the bank will remain, including one for the International Development Association, the bank’s fund for the poorest countries.
Multilateral development banks play a key role in global climate negotiations, where wealthy countries have committed to helping provide $300 billion a year for poorer countries by 2035. That no longer includes the United States, which has left the Paris Agreement and will exit the underlying United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change early next year.
“Targets send enormous signals about an institution’s direction of travel,” said Clemence Landers, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development. “At the same time, it’s a sign of the times and the World Bank is doing its level best to not rankle its largest shareholder.”
She believes the bank will continue financing renewable energy projects in countries that want them, despite having dropped its climate target.
“I wouldn’t be shocked if the bank continued to have an extremely robust clean pipeline with or without this target,” said Landers.
The bank says retiring the 45 percent target is part of its shift from a focus on “inputs to outcomes.” It will continue to monitor and report net greenhouse gas emissions across its projects and countries’ ability to withstand climate risks.
“We will continue to report to the Board on progress, including on climate co-benefits, and to contribute to our related joint MDB efforts,” the statement said, referring to its role as a multilateral development bank. “We will explore and discuss ways to better structure our engagement on adaptation, nature and pollution.”
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