The stock market continued to slide Wednesday after President Trump’s saber-rattling at North Korea unsettled investors, according to analysts.
Mr. Trump’s threatening rhetoric on North Korea “is almost entirely responsible for the pullback,” said Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab.
But he said he wasn’t too worried yet about the drop.
“It all depends on what happens next. So far there is really no panic out there,” Mr. Frederick said.
Every major market index was down at midday. Meanwhile, the price of gold, a safe haven for nervous investors, climbed $16 or 1.28 percent to $1,278.70 per ounce at noon.
Mr. Frederick pointed to the S&P 500 as evidence of Mr. Trump’s impact, noting it was less effected by the selloff of Disney stock that helped drive down the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The S&P experienced a sharp decline that began Tuesday as soon as Mr. Trump issued an ultimatum to North Korea.
The president warned Pyongyang that any more threats would be met with “fire and fury like the world has never seen.”
The tough talk came amid reports that North Korea had developed technology to miniaturize a nuclear warhead that could be placed in a intercontinental ballistic missile.
The stock market had been on a record run, raising for 10 consecutive days. The Dow Jones broke the 22,000 mark for the first time Aug. 2.
Mr. Trump made the booming stock market a chief measure of his success as president.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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