The market’s worst defence could be its too-good offence. The stock market plunged on Monday, extending a slide that started last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank as much as 1,500 points before recovering to close just down 1,175. The S&P 500 Index dropped more than 4%. This, of course, wasn’t what was supposed to happen for a specific ...

Whenever there’s a sharp global sell-off sparked by US equities, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. comes out warning of more volatility and pain ahead. In July, when there was a brief dip and the Cboe Volatility Index jumped, the venerable investment bank said selling from risk-parity funds, which buy government bonds to hedge against stock portfolios, could lead to more offloading ...

Jerome Powell takes over as chair of the Federal Reserve just as new figures show earnings and inflation edging up. It’s good news that the recovery is helping wages to rise faster and bringing inflation closer to the Fed’s target of 2 percent — but as last week’s big drop in equity prices suggests, it also complicates Powell’s job. Though ...