Stock Market News: Oil and Ruble Prices Control Dow Drop, Experts Compare It to 'Abolishing the Payroll Tax'
Stocks fell Tuesday in a trading session with the Dow and S&P 500 dropping for six of the past seven days, USA Today reported.
Ruble and oil prices spent the day on something similar to a rollercoaster ride. The Dow started the day falling, went up midday but then back down again.
The Dow Jones Industrial average ended down 0.7 percent, and the blue-chip index is now down five percent.
The Russian ruble hit its all-time low point against the U.S. dollar, tumbling at 23.2 percent.
The ruble strengthened later in the day ending at 5.7 percent against the U.S. dollar just after the Russian Central Bank raised interest rates to halt the currency slide.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil was down 4.1 percent to a new five and a half year low of just $53.93 a barrel.
"The instabilities are upon us -- in spades; the big losers are identifying themselves," chief investment officer Don Luskin told the newspaper. "It seems that's all markets are focusing on now. But the instabilities are short-term, and we think we'll get through them without a lot of damage. On the other side beyond the instabilities is an enormous stimulus to global growth in the form of liberation from a decade of the highest oil prices in history. In the U.S., just the drop in gasoline prices represents a tax cut almost equivalent to abolishing the payroll tax. Be patient, be alert -- in this instability will emerge great opportunity."
Chief investment strategist at Nuveen Asset Management also believes oil prices are important to follow.
"Lower oil prices are a massive positive for U.S. and global growth.," he said. "... the positives to consumers, manufacturers and airlines, outweigh the negatives to oil producers."
The market turbulence for Russia could boost the odds of more monetary stimulus from bankers around the world.
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