A chaotic session on Wall Street to open the second quarter - Dow tumbled -459-points or -1.90%, paring an earlier decline that the saw the index down as much as 759-points or -3.1%. All 30 index components were below their 50-day moving average. The broader S&P500 down 59-points or -2.23%, with Consumer Discretionary (down -2.83%) and Information Technology (-2.48%) leading all 11 primary sectors into the red. The S&P500 also closed below its 200-day moving average for the first time since June 2016. The index also recorded its worst start to April since 1932 The technology centric NASDAQ plummeted -197-points or -2.79%and leaving the index in negative territory year-to-date (down -0.48%), with Amazon down over >4% after President Trump renewed his attack on the e-commerce giant. Various reports suggested President Trump is exploring ways to change Amazon's tax treatment or or hit the company with antitrust action. Reports also say the President could try and prevent the Department of Defence from signing a lucrative contract with Amazon's Web Service platform. Over the weekend the Chinese Finance Ministry announced a string of retaliatory tariffs on a range of US goods ranging from 25% on American pork and eight other kinds of goods to 15% on fruit and 120 types of commodities. Music streaming company Spotify is slated to list on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) tonight AEST. April is historically the best month of the year for the Dow, gaining an average of 1.9%, based on data that goes back to 1950. It is the third-best month of the year for both the S&P 500 and the Russell 2000 index of small-capitalization shares. The S&P has historically gained an average of 1.5% over the month, as has the Russell. For the Nasdaq Composite Index April stands as the fourth-best month, with an average gain of 1.4%. Over the past 10 years, April has been a positive month for the S&P 500 index 90% of the time, gaining an average of 2.2% over the month. The 90% positive rate stands as the highest of any month over the past decade, while the average gain is the third-highest of any month (behind March and July).
