Filed under: Market News
Will geopolitical tensions in Ukraine and the Middle East be what triggers a correction or will investors shrug it off in a few days?
Financial markets were hit by a double whammy of troubling developments on Thursday: Malaysian Airlines' downed plane and Israel's ground offensive in Gaza. The Dow dropped by triple digits and the VIX, known as the "fear gauge" rose by more than 32 percent -- it's biggest one-day jump since April 2013. This is leading some to question whether this could be what triggers a correction.
Just how bad was the damage Thursday on Wall Street? Well, the Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI) fell 161 points, the Nasdaq composite (^IXIC) dropped 62 and the Standard & Poor's 500 index (^GPSC) was down 23 points.
If you find car dealerships intimidating because of the hard sell but you want to buy a car, you're in luck. AutoNation (AN), the U.S.'s largest car dealership chain, is going to make it possible for you to make a purchase with just a few clicks from the comfort of your couch without ever having to interact with anyone. The company is investing $100 million over the next two years to develop a new app that will also eventually allow you to get an appraisal on trade-ins. The app is expected to go live later this year. I wonder what this means for their salespeople.
And finally, a new report by the Pew Center finds that more people are living in multigenerational households than ever before and the number of millennials living in their parents or grandparents' homes has skyrocketed. More than 18 percent of the U.S. population now lives with family members of a different generation and more than 23 percent of people aged 25 to 34 live with their parents and/or grandparents. That is a roughly 23 percent jump from 2007 before the financial crisis. The main driver for the phenomenon: economics. The sluggish job market is forcing many young people to delay flying the coup or causing many to return to the nest.
-Produced by Karina Huber.