The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 611 points, or 3.39 percent, as investors reacted strongly to news that the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union. U.S. markets closed at three month lows.
Friday's sell-off marked the Dow's biggest drop in 10 months. All told, there were an estimated $2.1 trillion in losses across global markets today, according the S&P's Howard Silverblatt. There were an estimated $830 billion in losses estimated in U.S. markets today.
The Nasdaq dropped 202 points, or 4.12 percent, while the S&P 500 slid 76 points, or 3.6 percent.
U.S. crude fell 5 percent, or $2.47, to settle at $47.64, its largest one-day decline since February.
From Europe to Asia to the United States, financial markets showed panic over the so-called Brexit.
There is also news that the United Kingdom may not deserve that name for much longer.
Courtesy of the New York Times:
There has long been political jostling among the four nations that constitute the United Kingdom, but the so-called Brexit referendum has divided them in ways that mean they may not come back together again. England and Wales voted to leave the union. Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to stay. Within hours, Scottish and Irish politicians raised the possibility that their nations would leave the United Kingdom so they could remain in the European Union.
“This outcome tonight dramatically changes the political landscape here in the North of Ireland,” said Declan Kearney, the chairman of the political party Sinn Fein, which has legislators in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and has long sought their reunification. Mr. Kearney said Sinn Fein would seek a referendum to have Northern Ireland leave the United Kingdom and join Ireland, an independent country (and European Union member).
Scotland rejected a proposal to quit the United Kingdom in a referendum in 2014, in part over concerns that as an independent country, it would be unable to join the European Union and would suffer economically. On Friday, Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister of Scotland, said her party would “prepare the legislation that would be required to enable a new independence referendum to take place.”
While all of this is going on there are millions of British citizens who are hoping that the "no take backs" rule is not in effect in this case.
Courtesy of the Washington Post:
A petition calling for another referendum on whether Britain should stay in the European Union has now received at least 2.1 million signatures — a level that means it must now be debated by British politicians. It was apparently so popular that the British Parliament's website, where the petition was hosted, briefly crashed.
The hope is to somehow invalidate the Brexit vote and get things back to normal in the United Kingdom, before that moniker gets retired for good.
What the political fallout might be if they succeed in shifting this whole thing into reverse is anybody's guess, but I imagine that the country will suffer some serious political schizophrenia for quite awhile.
Let's just make sure that every Trump supporting moron is paying close attention to what is happening here, becasue if their candidate were to be elected they would likely suffer the same feelings of regret now sweeping the British Isles.
Source http://ift.tt/28TolSE
