Equities markets

Dow and NASDAQ dip lower, showing more losses.

Mark Cuban, the outspoken entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, said in an interview with Realvision.com earlier this week that “If you’re a day trader and you can walk and chew gum, you are making money right now. … You think everybody’s a genius in a bull market.”

The challenge, he said, would be when the sell-off comes.

Well, some of that came this morning, with the Dow shedding nearly 850 points in the first 90 minutes of trading. And that was on top of a Wednesday retreat that saw a contraction of nearly 300 points. Combined, the losses whacked more than 12.6 percent off the so-called Coronavirus Rally that saw the Dow add 8,681 points from its 2020 low of 18,591 set March 23 near the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S.

Even the NASDAQ, which set a record on Wednesday by crashing through the 10,000-point level for the first time, was catching Correction Flu this morning, shedding 140 points in early trading.

Oil, after staging a recovery over the past week, gave up some of those gains. West Texas Intermediate fell to less than $37 a barrel. Meanwhile, gold prices—which hit a 5-year high last month before pulling back—inched back up toward that mark at $1,752 an ounce in late-morning trades.

Within the last 15 minutes of closing time today, the Dow has dropped 1,743 points for Thursday.