Chapter 1679 Black Monday 1
Whether intentionally or unintentionally, China released the first piece of news on Saturday night in the Eastern Time Zone, and the second piece of news on Sunday night, which corresponds to 12 hours ago in the Eastern Time Zone of North America.
It happens to be during the trading suspension period.
This time window left enough room for the public opinion field to ferment, and waited for the "qualitative" statement from the Nanyang Siang Pau.
And then, its impact was felt in New York, the financial center on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, brewing a storm that was enough to destroy all hope.
On the surface, Sunday on Wall Street is a routine rest time for financial elites.
Barbecue parties continue on golf courses and in Long Island villa areas.
But invisible radio waves were transmitted frantically between encrypted lines and private communication equipment, and the air was filled with an atmosphere of impending storm.
The top floor of the Morgan Stanley building.
Senior portfolio manager West Richard flung open the door and strode into the office of his colleague Rosen David.
Her usually carefully groomed hair now looked a little disheveled, and her voice was clearly hoarse.
"Rosen, I'm afraid we're finished! Completely finished!"
David's office looked like it had just been swept by a hurricane, and his large mahogany desk was covered with various reports, graphs, and news summary printouts.
He was slumped in a high-back chair, his tie loose, his eyes sunken, staring at the densely packed pre-trading order data jumping on the screen.
"Calm down, West." Hearing Richard's words, he raised his eyelids tiredly and forced a soothing expression: "It's just another violent shock... Didn't we survive the Nasdaq plunge six months ago?"
While speaking, he pointed to the screen in front of him:
"We've already made a plan. We'll liquidate all semiconductor, AI, and cloud computing-related stocks as soon as the market opens, especially those fabless and foundry stocks that rely heavily on high-end manufacturing processes, so we can redirect funds to... well, energy and infrastructure!"
He tried to sound more confident. "Helion's fusion, SpaceX's starship, and the Martian city described by Musk—these are the hottest trends of the next decade! Capital has to find a place to go!"
Although SpaceX itself is not listed, its concept has inspired many other private aerospace companies.
Therefore, in David's view, at least the current situation is not desperate.
But Richard strode over to David's desk and placed the tablet in his hand on the scattered documents without saying a word.
The screen lit up, revealing the shocking front-page headline of Nanyang Siang Pau: "Who is ringing the death knell of the old order?"
David's eyes fell on the title and he flinched as if stung.
He subconsciously reached out and swiped the screen, quickly scanning the inventory data on the screen, especially the part about the "Beacon" space station and the 69-minute operation of controlled fusion.
The office fell into deathly silence, with only the low hum of the central air conditioning system.
"This tone... is very bad." After a long while, David finally spoke with difficulty, "I'm afraid that tomorrow there will be a flood of similar reports published..."
Richard also nodded and emphasized:
"Furthermore, they also emphasized China's advantages in the aerospace and nuclear fusion industries, which is equivalent to looking down on our development... So after the market opens tomorrow, I'm afraid no sector will be immune."
David Turley's previous confident remarks have backfired with the release of "High Performance Computing-7". It is difficult for the capital market to have high expectations for such a clown-like CEO.
David rubbed his swollen eyes and said in a dry voice, "Then...what else can we do?"
The two stared at each other in breathless silence for a few seconds.
The sound of the old order crumbling seemed to be clearly audible in my ears.
……
Monday at the New York Stock Exchange.
The numbers on the electronic clock jumped to 9:30.
The opening bell had not yet completely faded away, but the electronic display screens in the trading hall were already flooded with a glaring blood-red.
The curves representing the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite Index are falling wildly at a nearly vertical angle!
Although everyone had expected the decline, the magnitude of the decline was beyond most people's expectations.
"Oh my God!" Someone exclaimed first, but was immediately drowned out by a larger tsunami of sound waves composed of the beeping of countless terminal commands and the uncontrolled shouting of traders.
"Throw! Throw everything! No matter what sector!"
"Oh my God! Nasdaq! Nasdaq!"
"Take over! Is there anyone who will take over?! Damn it!"
"Fuse! It's about to blow!"
"..."
Panic is like the most deadly virus, spreading to every trading terminal in the world through fiber optic networks in milliseconds.
Sell orders poured in like an avalanche, and buying evaporated instantly. Just four minutes after the market opened!
The Nasdaq Composite Index plummeted 11%.
The S&P 500 plummeted 7%.
The first-level circuit breaker mechanism is triggered!
The system prompt instantly spread throughout the entire exchange hall, and all transactions came to a halt.
The huge electronic screen was frozen on the blood-red decline figures, with a circular notification scrolling below that read "Trading suspended for 15 minutes."
The trading hall, which was bustling with people and full of fighting atmosphere just now, now fell into an eerie silence.
The traders' faces were pale, some stood there in a daze, and some slumped down in their chairs with their hands on their heads, staring blankly at the red color that symbolized the crazy evaporation of wealth.
Fifteen minutes felt like a century.
The bell for resuming trading rang again, like a second death knell.
However, the brief pause did not bring any calmness and reflection, but instead accumulated deeper fear and a more determined will to sell.
The struggling rebound was like a stone thrown into the sea. Before it could even create a splash, it was swallowed up by the surging waves.
The curve dives downward again in an irreversible manner!
ten minutes later.
The S&P 500's losses extended to 13%.
The second level circuit breaker is triggered!
Trading was suspended again for fifteen minutes.
This time, even the cries of despair were rare.
A huge feeling of powerlessness and cold fear gripped everyone's heart.
Some people began to pack up their things silently, with empty eyes.
The live news camera swept across, capturing the panic in the eyes of several senior traders.
Wall Street, the temple of global capital, is now filled with an apocalyptic and decadent atmosphere.
The fleeing capital is like a frightened bird, desperately looking for any possible safe haven.
Part of the funds instinctively flowed into the traditionally perceived "safe assets" - the price of gold futures was instantly raised to an unimaginable number, and the yield on Washington's Treasury bonds fell sharply accordingly.
However, another large-scale and clearly directional hot money turned around in the chaos and flowed eastward at an astonishing speed.
Although trading in Hong Kong Island and Singapore was far from opening, calls, emails and faxes had already crossed the ocean.
Expectations for the Hang Seng Index and the Straits Times Index were quickly raised, waiting for the official launch of trading the next day.
In terms of pre-market forecasts, buying will sweep across multiple weighted sectors, pushing the index to buck the trend and continue to rise...
This unique "prosperity" forms a sharp contrast with the tragic scene of the North American meltdown.
When the New York market finally survived the second circuit breaker for fifteen minutes and resumed trading in a heavy atmosphere until the close, the three major stock indexes had fallen deeply into the quagmire and were unable to extricate themselves:
The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 4178.45 points, or 19.63%, barely triggering the third circuit breaker.
The S&P 500 plummeted 523.17 points, or 15.89%.
The Nasdaq Composite Index plummeted 1121.33 points, or 21.02%.
The shocking absolute drop in thousands of points on the screen completely froze the last bit of life in the trading hall.
Someone slumped in a chair, looking lost, his expensive suit wrinkled.
Some people refreshed the screen repeatedly, as if they couldn't believe what they were seeing.
Others closed their terminals expressionlessly and quietly left the ruins that had just experienced a financial nuclear explosion.
A considerable number of them are experienced traders who have experienced more than one stock market crash before.
But because of this, they look at the problem from a more thorough perspective——
It is completely different from the stock market crashes in 2008, 2000, and even 1987.
This time, the North American capital giants no longer have the ability to reap the world through tidal cycles, and Wall Street not only has no countermeasures, but is even beginning to lose the right to define the global financial market.
If I had to find a similar situation...
That's probably only the super crash in 1929 that triggered the Great Depression.
On social media, a screenshot of the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeting 4178 points in a single day went viral.
The most popular comment below comes from a candidate from the Elephant Party.
He retweeted one of his earlier tweets, but edited some of the numerical details:
"If the Dow Jones Industrial Average drops more than 4000 points in a single day, the president of the day should be put in a cannon and shot into the sun at high speed. No excuses!"
