Markets Are Falling; Dow Jones & Crypto Take a Massive Hit

It was a bloody day for markets around the world on Wednesday as stock markets plummeted. Later in the day, crypto prices took their own dive, plummeting 10% or more across the board.

At one point during the day, the Dow Jones had dropped 1,000 points. It climbed back slightly, eventually closing down 831.83 points on the day, or 3.15%.

It was the worst day for the Dow Jones in eight months.

Cryptocurrencies prices slumped in a similar way later in the day, with bitcoin suddenly losing 5% of its value in an hour and other major cryptocurrencies losing 9% to 11%.

Futures trading suggests that Thursday could be an even worse day for financial markets. Dow futures suggest we could see a 350 point loss at Thursday’s open as the stock market rout is expected to continue.

The S&P 500, meanwhile, was down 94.66 (3.29%) on the day, with the NASDAQ dropping 315.97 (4.08%) as tech stocks plummeted.

Slumping financial markets were the story of the day on Wednesday. While stock markets were closing across North America, however, crypto markets quickly followed suit with a crash of their own.

Coinmarketcap charts show a sharp and sudden sell-off in crypto markets occurring at around 18:00 UTC on October 10. At 18:09, the price of bitcoin was sitting at $6,562.28, which is approximately where it had spent most of the day. Less than an hour later, at 18:54, bitcoin had plummeted approximately 5% to $6,314.62.

Other cryptocurrencies were hit with price drops around the same time, although most altcoins experienced significantly worse drops.

ETH dropped 9%, for example, and XRP dropped 11.25%. Bitcoin Cash dropped 10.85%, EOS lost 7.57%, and Stellar lost 8.85%.

As we go to press, only six cryptocurrencies in the top 100 have gained in the last 24 hours. Aeternity has gained 8.42% over the last 24 hours, for example, and currently sits in the #31 position by market cap overall.

It seems unlikely that the damage will be limited to Wednesday – at least in traditional financial markets.

As we go to press, Asian markets are experiencing huge losses. Shanghai’s SE Composite Index is down 2.75%, for example, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is down 3.26%. The Nikkei 225 is down 3.89%, while Taiwan’s TSEC 50 Index is down 5.51%. Futures markets for North American markets look equally as grim for the open on Thursday.

Stay tuned. It’s looking like it could be a rough end to the week for traditional financial markets and crypto markets alike.