Tuesday was a new day, but the same story on Wall Street—considerable losses in the face of declining oil prices. Oil fell another 4.3%, settling just under $48 a barrel. Prices haven’t been this low since April 2009, the tail end of the Great Recession.
Stocks were hit to the tune of a 130-point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Combined with Monday’s 331-point drop, which was Wall Street’s worst day since October, the Dow has fallen 461 points—more than 2.5% in the first two days of trading this week. Tuesday was the fifth straight day of losses on the S&P 500, the index’s longest losing streak since late 2013.
Until oil finds its lowest level, concern and volatility will reign on Wall Street. The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) Index, the market’s main measure of investor uncertainty and stock volatility climbed another 7% Tuesday.
Investors will continue to hope for some good news when jobs reports go public on Thursday and Friday of this week. But for now, the question remains “how low will oil go?”
Here were the Tuesday numbers on Wall Street:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 17,371.64 (-130.01)
NASDAQ: 4,592.74 (-59.84)
S&P 500: 2,002.61 (-17.97)
