What’s really driving the recent stock market jitters

What real-world events prompted this level of hysteria in the markets? It didn’t take much.

Crash, panic, rout: To hear headline writers and Twitter pundits tell it, the stock market sell-off that began last Thursday, and that accelerated sharply on Monday, has been a full-fledged disaster. Investors, too, have seemed to feel a sense of panic: the VIX volatility index, often known as the Fear Index, spiked to heights seen this century only in 2008 (when it appeared the global financial system might be collapsing) and 2020 (when COVID upended the global economy). And market observers who even said the sell-off was forecasting a recession called on the Federal Reserve to hold an emergency meeting and slash interest rates by three-quarters of a point.