WASHINGTON (AP) – The turbulence that’s roiling financial markets is punishing stock investors, raising worries for major U.S. companies and will likely produce even punier returns for savers.
Yet some Americans actually stand to benefit from the forces that are driving the frenzied trading. Lower oil prices and sinking interest rates are lowering gas prices, keeping inflation low and cutting mortgage rates to levels that, for some, will scream refinance.
Stocks plunged from the start Wednesday – tumbling more than 400 points at one point – in part over fears that the weakness in Europe and Asia will cause the U.S. economy to grow more slowly than analysts and traders had expected.
A tepid report on U.S. retail sales hurt, too.
Profits of U.S. multinational companies, which have posted record increases for much of this year, would suffer from a prolonged slowdown overseas. That worry began settling over financial markets last month and has intensified since then.