The S&P 500 tumbled to the brink of a bear market on Monday as U.S. stocks extended their steep sell-off in a pre-holiday shortened session, with investors rattled by the U.S. Treasury secretary's convening of a crisis group and by other political developments.
President Donald Trump blasted the Federal Reserve on Monday, describing it as the "only problem" for the U.S. economy, as top officials convened to discuss a growing rout in stock markets caused in part by the president's attacks on the central bank.
Oil prices plunged more than 6 percent to the lowest in more than a year on Monday, pulling back sharply late in the session as fears of an economic slowdown rattled the market.
A gauge of stocks worldwide posted an eighth straight decline on Monday as investors ignored Trump administration attempts to reinforce confidence and the U.S. president called the Federal Reserve the "only problem our economy has."
Exxon Mobil and a seismic research company it hired to search for oil off the coast of Guyana declined on Monday to say when they might resume exploration work halted after a weekend confrontation with Venezuela's navy.
U.S. financial regulators told the Treasury Department on Monday they were not seeing anything out of ordinary in financial markets during the recent sell-off, according to a source familiar with the matter.
U.S. Treasury officials were not concerned with liquidity in the banking system when Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin reached out to top U.S. bank CEOs in phone calls on Sunday, CNBC reported on Monday, citing a senior Treasury official.
U.S. President Donald Trump blasted America's independent central bank on Monday, describing the Federal Reserve as the only problem had by the country's economy.
