October Proves Scary Month for Stocks

October proved to be a scary month for stocks due to a trade war between the United States and China, higher interest rates and concerns of slowing growth.

Nasdaq lost 9 percent in October, its biggest drop since November 2008, according to CNN. CNBC reported that the S&P 500 lost $1.91 trillion. Dow Jones fell 5.1 percent in the month as well, its biggest percentage drop since January 2016, according to MarketWatch.

Even Wall Street’s tech darlings, best known as FANG — Facebook FB, Amazon AMZN, Netflix NFLX and Google GOOGL — were hit hard during the month. Amazon was down 20.2 percent, followed by Netflix at 19.3 percent, Google parent Alphabet at 9.7 percent and Facebook at 7.7 percent, CNBC noted.

“October volatility is legendary, and we’re not just talking about the crash in 2008,” S&P Dow Jones Indices analyst Howard Silverblatt told CNBC. “October is a much more volatile month than any of the others as far as quick declines go.”

MarketWatch wrote, though, that Wednesday already showed promise for a brighter November in the financial sector. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 241.2 points to 25,115.76, its first time over the 25,000 mark since Oct. 23.

The S&P 500 jumped 29.05 percent to 2,711.68 while Nasdaq bounced up 144.25 points to 7,305.90.

“We’ve been trading on things that aren’t fundamental in nature, and now we’re back to looking at the fundamentals, which are very attractive,” Brent Schutte, chief investment strategist at Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company, told MarketWatch.

Some companies that are leading the rebound include Facebook, whose third quarter profits beat the forecasting average; General Motors, whose shared were up 9.1 percent base on third quarter earnings; beauty company Estee Lauder, whose stocked climbed 4.7 percent; and eBay, which rose 5.9 percent.