NEW YORK — Stocks around the world sank Monday on worries that the Trump White House may not be able to help businesses as much as once thought. Many of the trends that have been in place since Election Day went into sharp reverse: The dollar’s value sank against other currencies, as did bank stocks, while prices jumped for Treasury bonds.

Morgan Stanley lost 4.5 percent early Monday and copper miner Freeport-McMoRan slumped 5 percent.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 lost 20 points, or 0.9 percent, to 2,323.

The Dow Jones industrial average gave back 161 points, or 0.8 percent, to 20,437. The Nasdaq composite declined 55 points, or 1 percent, to 5,773.

Small-company stocks fell more than the rest of the market.

Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.35 percent.

Advertisement

The stock market had been on a nearly nonstop rip higher since Election Day on the belief that President Donald Trump and a Republican-led Congress will cut income taxes, loosen regulations for companies and institute other business-friendly policies. Besides stronger economic growth, investors were also predicting higher inflation would be on the way.

But last week’s failure by Republicans to fulfill a pledge they’ve been making for years, to repeal the Affordable Care Act, raises doubts that Washington can push through other promises. The House on Friday pulled its bill to revamp the country’s health care system, when it was clear that it didn’t have enough votes to pass.

The dollar fell against most of its major rivals, including the Japanese yen, euro and British pound. The ICE U.S. Dollar index, which measures the U.S. currency’s value against six others, has given up nearly all of its big gains since Election Day.

The dollar fell to 110.38 Japanese yen from 110.80 late Friday. The euro rose to $1.0883 from $1.0808, and the British pound rose to $1.2593 from $1.2500.

Among the few gainers on the day were hospital stocks. The Republican health care plan would have resulted in 24 million additional uninsured people in a decade, according to a tally by the Congressional Budget Office. And hospitals take care of patients, whether they’re insured or not.

Stocks were weak around the world. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index dropped 1.4 percent, South Korea’s Kospi index lost 0.6 percent and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong fell 0.7 percent. In Europe, the German DAX lost 0.9 percent, the French CAC 40 fell 0.4 percent and the FTSE 100 in London dropped 0.9 percent.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.

filed under: