If you glanced at your news feeds on Monday you may have seen a variety of headlines about a tumbling stock market, weak U.S. jobs data, and fears of a possible recession.
As reported by USA TODAY, the S&P 500 Index was down 8.6% and the NASDAQ 100 fell 5.4% as of Monday morning. International markets also saw drops prior to the Monday morning plunge.
There is a lot of information floating around and it can be a bit confusing and even concerning, especially amid conversations of a recession.
Here are the basics about what happened Monday and why you likely do not need to panic, according to experts.
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Why did the stock market drop on Monday morning?
Per USA TODAY, some of the driving forces behind the drop include sharp declines in tech stocks including Nvidia, Apple and Amazon and a disappointing jobs report, which was released by the Labor Department on Friday.
In the July jobs report, the Labor Department said that the unemployment rate rose from 4.1% to 4.3%, the highest since October of 2021. Hiring in the United States also slowed as employers added only 114,000 jobs. Per the U.S. Bureau of Labor, the average monthly job gain in the United States has been 215,000 jobs per month over the last 12 months.
According to Roberto Chang, professor of economics at Rutgers University, the July report likely confirmed for many people that the Federal Reserve, in its effort to reduce inflation, has kept interest rates high for too long, triggering a…
