On Tuesday, US stocks opened lower, with the three major indices all falling over 1.4%. Following the collapse of the First Republic Bank, the banking crisis continues to spread.
The KBW Regional Banking Index in the United States plummeted over 6% during the day, reaching its lowest level since November 2020. PacWest Bancorp's shares dropped more than 30%, marking the largest intraday decline since March 13 and hitting a record low. Alliance Western Bank fell over 24%, also reaching its largest drop in nearly two months and triggering a circuit breaker. Both Comerica and Zions Bancorp fell over 10%.
Chinese concept stocks collectively declined, with the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index falling over 4%. Kingsoft Cloud and Wanguo Data both fell more than 8%, Pinduoduo fell 6.8%, Bilibili dropped almost 6%, NIO Inc. fell 5.4%, and JD.com fell 4.5%.
European stocks widened their losses at the close, with the Europe STOXX 600, Germany's DAX 30, France's CAC 40, and Italy's FTSE MIB indices all falling over 1%.
Data released by the US Department of Labor revealed that the number of JOLTS job openings in the US fell for the third consecutive month in March, dropping from nearly 10 million a month earlier to 9.59 million, the lowest level in nearly two years, and significantly below the expected 9.775 million.
The data indicates that after a year of monetary policy tightening by the Federal Reserve, the economy has cooled significantly, and the labor market is slowly returning to balance.
In addition, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that if Congress does not raise the debt ceiling, the US government may be unable to pay all its bills on time as early as June 1. This is earlier than many forecasters had predicted, leaving Republicans and Democrats with only a few weeks to reach an agreement on raising the United States' approximately $31.4 trillion borrowing limit.
WTI crude oil plunged 3.00% during the day, currently at $73.41 per barrel, while Brent crude oil's intraday decline expanded to 2.85%, now at $77.05 per barrel.
Analysts say the significant drop in oil prices is not due to bearish news but rather a lack of trading volume plaguing the market. Yesterday, as most of the world closed for the Labor Day holiday, trading volume for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil hit its lowest level since December 2022.
