US Market weighs by Boeing, J&J; bleak China data

The US stock market finished session lower on Friday, 18 October 2019, as worries over global economic growth after gloomy China economic data compounded by negative headlines about Johnson & Johnson and Boeing. At closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 255.70 points, or 0.95%, to 26,770.20, the S&P 500 lost 11.75 points, or 0.39%, to 2,986.20 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 67.31 points, or 0.83%, to 8,089.54.

Further evidence that the Chinese economy is slowing left a bad taste in investors' mouths. The pace of growth in the world's second largest economy slowed to its lowest rate since 1992 as the bruising trade war with the United States took its toll, stoking fears of slowdown contagion.

 

A slowdown in China, one of the world's primary growth engines, doesn't bode well for the global economy. At the same time, China's economic expansion has been steadily losing steam for years, as the country is turning from an export-driven developing economy into a more consumer-focused one.

The International Monetary Fund has lowered its forecast for global growth this year to 3%, which would mark the slowest expansion since the financial crisis.

Boeing shares dropped after reports that text messages between two employees suggested the planemaker misled the Federal Aviation Administration about the safety of the grounded 737 MAX aircraft.

Johnson & Johnson shares declined after the company announced it would recall baby powder in the United States after regulators found trace amounts of asbestos in a sample.

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