Talk of a global recession have caused the investment world to come unhinged. On Wednesday, the NASDAQ was down 3.02%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) dropped 3.05% and the Standard & Poor’s 500 lost 2.93%. The DJIA loss came is it plummeted 800 points, one of the largest single-day drops in history. Gaming companies weren’t spared from the retreat, either, with all major companies finding themselves losing billions of dollars in their stock valuations.
On Tuesday, before President Trump announced the possibility of new tariffs against China in his ongoing trade war with the country, Las Vegas Sands was trading at $55.01. As of yesterday afternoon, the price was down to $51.38. MGM Resorts has also suffered, sinking from $29.33 to a low of $27.63 on Wednesday. It has since recovered somewhat, though, and ended Thursday at $27.94.
Boyd Gaming has suffered one of the largest gut punches. The company wasn’t on solid footing prior to Trump’s announcement, but started Tuesday at around $24.38. It has been steadily declining since, and was down to $21.78 yesterday afternoon. Penn National is in the same boat, falling from $18.77 to $16.78 over the two-day period.
No one else was spared, either – Wynn Resorts, Caesars Entertainment, Eldorado Resorts and other U.S.-based casino operators have all had to batten down the hatches to weather the storm. Fortunately, many analysts aren’t convinced that a recession is on its way. The former chief of the Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen, said in an interview with Fox Business on Wednesday, “Historically, [the Treasury bond curve] been a pretty good signal of recession, and I think that’s why the markets pay attention to it, but I would really urge on this occasion it may be a less good signal. And the reason for that is that there are a number of factors other than market’s expectations about the future path of interest rates that are pushing down long-term yields.”
Even the cryptocurrency market seemed to react negatively to the latest in the trade war. Most higher-placed digital currencies saw their prices plummet but, unlike traditional markets, they have since recovered some of their losses.
