Wall Street slumps; CO2 shortages threaten UK meat supplies; record gas prices – business live | Business

US stocks are selling off sharply as seasonal factors have allowed the Evergrande story to help deliver the first meaningful pullback since February. It just seems all the headlines to start the trading week are bearish; Evergrande’s debt fears and contagion, Chip shortage issues persist, PM Johnson is going after Amazon’s taxes, lackluster IPO performance after another record year, and as some Fed officials have begun to sell their stock amid ethics concerns. (earlier this month Fed’s Kaplan and Rosengren said they will sell all their individual stock holdings by September 30th).

The Evergrande crisis and fears of a credit squeeze was enough to weigh on sentiment. Market contagion in Asia is happening as excessive risk taking in China has always been the story. Letting Evergrande fail would send the market the right signal that China is serious about controlling debt, but Beijing will likely support whatever is necessary to avoid sending shock waves through their financial system.

The democratic senator from West Virginia threw a curve ball for the Biden administration in thinking Congress should take a “strategic pause” until 2022 before delivering on the spending bill which could derail everything else. This might just be posturing but it does raise the risk that investors may have been a little too optimistic in expecting infrastructure and ~$2 trillion spending package.