Dow Suffers Record-Breaking Christmas Eve Losses
The exterior of the New York Stock Exchange photographed last week. On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had its worst Christmas Eve performance since 1918.
Patrick Sison/AP
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Patrick Sison/AP
The stock market was only open for half a day Monday, and that was more than enough time for the Dow Jones Industrial Average to drop 2.9 percent to 21,792.20. That was its worst Christmas Eve performance since 1918.
Other U.S. indexes fell too. The Nasdaq lost 2.2 percent to 6,192.92. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 2.7 percent to 2,351.10.
U.S. stocks are on track for their worst year since 2008, which was during the Great Recession, and their worst December since 1931, which was during the Great Depression.
The markets have been dealing with concerns of a slowing global economy, the trade dispute with China and last week’s interest rate increase — the fourth by the Federal Reserve this year.
Over the weekend, reports surfaced that President Trump was asking advisers if he could legally fire Fed Chairman Jerome Powell. Trump nominated Powell last year to take over the Fed, but since interest rates began rising, Trump has upped his rhetoric against Powell.
Efforts by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Sunday to reassure investors backfired. He tweeted that he had spoken with the heads of the nation’s six largest banks and was assured that they had sufficient lending capacity.
Today I convened individual calls with the CEOs of the nation’s six largest banks. See attached statement. pic.twitter.com/YzuSamMyeT
— Steven Mnuchin (@stevenmnuchin1) December 23, 2018
“We’ve gone through situations before where it’s absolutely normal for the secretary of Treasury to reach out to the private sector,” Quincy Krosby, a chief market strategist at Prudential Financial, told The Wall Street Journal.
“But what’s bad is this made the papers, and says the government is very worried,” Krosby told the paper, adding that with investors focused on so many issues, “it’s almost as if gravity is pulling this market toward a lower level before it bottoms out.”
Monday morning’s drop in U.S. financial markets began after Trump tweeted about the Fed.
The only problem our economy has is the Fed. They don’t have a feel for the Market, they don’t understand necessary Trade Wars or Strong Dollars or even Democrat Shutdowns over Borders. The Fed is like a powerful golfer who can’t score because he has no touch – he can’t putt!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 24, 2018
“The only problem our economy has is the Fed,” the president said on Twitter. “They don’t have a feel for the Market, they don’t understand necessary Trade Wars or Strong Dollars or even Democrat Shutdowns over Borders. The Fed is like a powerful golfer who can’t score because he has no touch – he can’t putt!”
The Fed is an independent agency. While board members are nominated by the president, they make decisions separately of the White House.
Peter Conti-Brown, a financial historian at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, told The Associated Press: “We’ve never seen anything like this full-blown and full-frontal assault. This is a disaster for the Fed, a disaster for the president and a disaster for the economy.”
After Monday’s Wall Street losses, Asian markets followed. In early trading, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell by 5.1 percent to 19,147.45 points. The Shanghai Composite Index lost 2.1 percent to 2,473.75. Benchmarks in Thailand and Taiwan also declined.
Markets in Hong Kong, Australia and South Korea were closed for Christmas.
After a pause in trading for the holiday, U.S. markets reopen Wednesday.
As Partial Shutdown Continues, FDA Prepares To Furlough Employees
Many Food and Drug Administration activities will continue despite the partial federal shutdown.
Andrew Harnik/AP
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Andrew Harnik/AP
The partial government shutdown that started Saturday will affect quite a few activities of the Food and Drug Administration.
Although most of the agency’s employees weren’t working over the weekend and on Monday and Tuesday because of federal holidays, FDA will furlough some 40 percent of its staff starting Wednesday.
However, much of the agency’s workforce will continue through the shutdown, with more than 10,000 FDA employees — nearly 60 percent — reporting to work, according to numbers released by the agency Friday.
The majority of those people are doing work funded by user fees paid by pharmaceutical and medical device companies, according to an analysis by the Alliance for a Stronger FDA, an advocacy group representing patient and consumer advocates as well as trade associations.
Here is a quick breakdown of how the shutdown will affect the agency’s work.
Activities that will continue during the shutdown
The FDA will continue work that’s critical to public health and safety. It will be able to respond to emergencies, like the flu and foodborne illnesses. It will continue recalls of any foods, drugs and medical devices that pose a high risk to human health.
As FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb tweeted over the weekend, the agency will also continue to screen “food and drug imports” and inspect any facilities that might pose “an imminent threat to health and life.”
Some criminal and civil investigations where there is an immediate risk to public health will also continue through the shutdown, as will all of the agency’s work that is funded by user fees.
THREAD: During the lapse in federal funding, #FDA‘s ongoing work will fall into three key areas: emergency work to save lives and protect property, criminal and some civil enforcement work, and work funded by user fees. pic.twitter.com/fxCIGUZDtW
— Scott Gottlieb, M.D. (@SGottliebFDA) December 22, 2018
For example, the agency will continue to oversee the manufacturing and distribution of all tobacco products. “The tobacco program is 100 percent user-fee funded,” says Steven Grossman, deputy executive director at the Alliance for a Stronger FDA.
Similarly, much of the agency’s work with new products is funded by fees paid by industry, so the FDA will continue reviewing and approving drugs and medical devices where the fees have already been paid. It will also continue to review requests for clinical research and issue any necessary guidance.
Activities that will stop during the shutdown
Broadly speaking, all activities that are less likely to have an immediate impact on health and safety of consumers will come to a halt. For example, routine regulatory and compliance work for medical products, animal drugs and most foods will be paused, according to a contingency staffing plan put forward by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Routine inspections of facilities and all work related to cosmetics and nutrition will also be paused during this period.
And the shutdown may affect some aspects of the drug review process as an estimated 30 percent of that work is funded by appropriations, according to the analysis by the Alliance for a Stronger FDA.
Should consumers be concerned about food and drug safety during the shutdown?
Probably not, at least not for now, says Grossman. “In the short term, consumers should not see much of an impact,” he says. That’s because “anything that could affect human health and safety [in the near term] will be staffed.”
New York Jets QB Sam Darnold Poses As A Mall Santa Claus
Last week in New Jersey, quarterback Sam Darnold went undercover as a mall Santa. Kids asked for toys and pets. One young fan asked for a Saquon Barkley jersey. Barkley plays for the New York Giants.
NOEL KING, HOST:
Good morning. I’m Noel King. New York Jets rookie quarterback Sam Darnold went undercover dressed in a red-and-white suit and a beard at a New Jersey mall last week. Kids asked him to bring them puppies and skateboards.
And then, eek, two young football fans asked him for Saquon Barkley jerseys. Barkley plays for the Giants. Darnold slumped a little and asked one kid kind of sadly, Saquon?
But when he revealed his true identity, a bunch of young Jets fans went nuts, and he seemed to cheer up.
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Trinidad And Tobago Remixes Caribbean Christmas Traditions
During the months leading up to Christmas, parang music can be heard just about everywhere in Trinidad.
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The twin-island nation of Trinidad and Tobago is famous for calypso and soca, infectious music that takes center stage during the island’s annual Carnival. But during the Christmas season another type of music dominates.
At a sound check for a band that plays old-time instruments, musicians play cuatro, a small, four-stringed acoustic guitar. There are also mandolins, maracas and a box bass, Trinidad’s version of the washtub bass. These are some of the instruments that are used to make the religious folk music called parang.
During the months leading up to Christmas, parang can be heard just about everywhere in Trinidad. Most of the songs are about the birth of Christ. However, not everyone understands the lyrics. Parang was brought to Trinidad by migrant farm workers from nearby Venezuela. The songs are sung in Spanish even though the mother tongue on the island is English.
Some parang groups like Los Alumnos de San Juan pantomime to help audiences grasp the Spanish lyrics to songs. Alicia Jaggasar is the leader of Los Alumnos de San Juan and also heads the National Parang Association.
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“Parang music is our way at Christmastime to tell the story but in a different language and in a different musical style,” Jaggasar says. “So you wouldn’t hear it as the normal ‘Hark the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn king.’ You will hear: ‘Cantando gloria, gloria, gloria en el cielo. En un establo nació el Dios verdadero,‘” which translates to “Singing glory, glory, glory in heaven. The true God was born in a stable.”
Jaggasar’s group is booked until Christmas Eve. On that night, parang bands go house to house until the wee hours in an exuberant form of Christmas caroling. But they must adhere to some elaborate musical etiquette to gain entry.
Alicia Jaggasar is the leader of Los Alumnos de San Juan and also heads the National Parang Association.
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John Otis/NPR
“You have to do a serenado from outside,” Jaggasar says. “And in that song, you have to actually say who you are, and what you’ve come to do. And it’s only when the host hears who you are, then the door is open. They don’t just open it just like that.”
But once inside, the party revs up.
“Christmas morning, I would hear the cuatros, the mandolins, as the groups went from house to house, ” Michele Reis, a Trinidad academic, says. “There is lots of rum flowing, there is food that comes. … And it’s just a really festive time, you know?”
To keep this tradition alive, high schools and colleges in Trinidad hold parang contests. Still, musicians are always tinkering with parang in an effort to reach a wider audience. One result is soca-parang, which is sung in English so more people will understand, and fused with the frenetic rhythms of soca.
Purists complain that the lyrics often glorify girls rather than the gospel. But Jaggasar endorses the hybrid. “Because we are land of calypso, soca and steel band, we like to mix things, that is just our culture,” Jaggasar says.
