Dow Falls 1,300 Points In 48 Hours As Market Rout Continues

U.S. stocks experienced their worst two-day stretch in years this week, with the Dow dropping 1,200 points on Wednesday and Thursday.

Fears over the international trade war, rising rate hikes, the impact of Hurricane Michael, the upcoming U.S. midterm elections and a potentially disappointing Q3 earnings season likely all played a role in the weak market. Barclays is particularly concerned about a choppy earnings season for tech companies.

The Dow closed Thursday's session down 2.1 percent at 25,052.83, after dropping 3.1 percent on Wednesday. The S&P 500 closed at 2,728.38, down 2 percent.

Stocks Hit Hard

Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN and Netflix, Inc. NFLX were among the hardest hit stocks of the past 48 hours, tumbling 7.5 percent and 9 percent, respectively. The Dow’s biggest losers included Nike, Inc. NKE and Boeing Co BA, which declined 7 percent and 6.9 percent, respectively.

The two-day 4.7-percent drop in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF SPY comes after the S&P 500 gained 22.2 percent in the previous 18 months.

What Now?

"It's a momentum correction, not a portfolio correction," Joe Terranova, chief market strategist at Virtus Investment Partners, told CNBC. "While we have a bias to believe 2008 could happen again, I don't think this is the case."

Bankrate Chief Financial Analyst, Greg McBride said Hurricane Michael is no reason for investors to panic.

“Despite the regional economic impact of such a powerful, destructive storm, this will not have a lasting effect on the pace of national economic growth,” McBride said. “Even the economic impact felt locally will give way to faster economic growth in future months as insurance proceeds arrive and clean-up and rebuilding activity gets underway.”

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