Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P 500 all just had their worst day of the year

(Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

last updated 6 August 2019

America's three top stock indexes are having a very bad day.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, Nasdaq Composite, and S&P 500 all saw their biggest percentage drops of 2019 on Monday, following a string of declines that started Thursday. The drops all came after President Trump announced new tariffs on China, and after China responded by devaluing its currency Monday morning to its weakest level in a decade.

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The U.S. and China have been locked in a trade war for months as the two countries continually levy more tariffs on each other. But China changed up its retaliation on Sunday by letting its currency weaken past the point of 7 yuan to the American dollar and directly blamed the move on Trump. That plunged Wall Street into spasms of fear about even more U.S. tariffs, and worries that the trade war is escalating into a currency war — something that was reflected in Monday's unilateral drops, CNN reports.

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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.

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