Mapping Fallout From ‘Black Monday’: Who Was Hardest Hit?

American stock markets have just closed. As the smoke clears, FP tallies the worldwide damage.

By , a senior editor at Foreign Policy from 2013-2017, and , the interactives and features designer at Foreign Policy from 2015-2020.
Black Monday map cover_2 cropped
Black Monday map cover_2 cropped

Aug. 24, which some have already dubbed "Black Monday," was not a kind day to global equity markets. The rout began with a massive sell-off in China, where the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index plunged 8.49 percent in just one day. Those losses echoed in major indices worldwide, including those of Japan (down 4.61 percent), Germany (down 4.70 percent), and the United States (where the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 3.58 percent).

Aug. 24, which some have already dubbed “Black Monday,” was not a kind day to global equity markets. The rout began with a massive sell-off in China, where the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index plunged 8.49 percent in just one day. Those losses echoed in major indices worldwide, including those of Japan (down 4.61 percent), Germany (down 4.70 percent), and the United States (where the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 3.58 percent).

The map below shows the aftermath of Monday’s trading in benchmark indices in major economies worldwide. Red indicates a loss; the deeper the red, the more severe it has been. Click on any covered country for data:

The pummeling investors delivered to Chinese stocks surely had global knock-on effects, yet it is not the sole cause of the Aug. 24 swoon. Bill Bishop, who edits the influential China-focused newsletter Sinocism, told Foreign Policy that China’s stock market “has historically been irrelevant both to the domestic Chinese economy and the global economy,” but that China’s government “has tarnished its reputation with its bungled response, and so now even those foreign investors who had some confidence in the ability of Beijing bureaucrats to navigate their very difficult economic problems are now wondering if they are competent.” That may have provided “the spark for the broader global sell-off,” though Bishop also pointed to anxiety about the Federal Reserve possibly raising interest rates and an “extended rally” in U.S. stocks that made them a more expensive investment.

Meanwhile, Damien Ma, a fellow at the Paulson Institute, said that “it’s premature to conclude that this is some kind of major crisis” for the Chinese economy. “The key,” he told FP, “is how the government will now manage the real economy so that it stabilizes rather than continuing to search for a bottom” and “whether any of this has actually moved the needle on the elite consensus in pushing through reforms” on the economic front.

This article has been updated to include a comment from Damien Ma.

Image by C.K. Hickey/Foreign Policy. Do not reproduce without permission.

David Wertime was a senior editor at Foreign Policy from 2013-2017. Twitter: @dwertime

C.K. Hickey was the interactives and features designer at Foreign Policy from 2015-2020. Twitter: @seekayhickey

Read More On Asia | China | Economics

More from Foreign Policy

Children are hooked up to IV drips on the stairs at a children's hospital in Beijing.
Children are hooked up to IV drips on the stairs at a children's hospital in Beijing.

Chinese Hospitals Are Housing Another Deadly Outbreak

Authorities are covering up the spread of antibiotic-resistant pneumonia.

Henry Kissinger during an interview in Washington in August 1980.
Henry Kissinger during an interview in Washington in August 1980.

Henry Kissinger, Colossus on the World Stage

The late statesman was a master of realpolitik—whom some regarded as a war criminal.

A Ukrainian soldier in helmet and fatigues holds a cell phone and looks up at the night sky as an explosion lights up the horizon behind him.
A Ukrainian soldier in helmet and fatigues holds a cell phone and looks up at the night sky as an explosion lights up the horizon behind him.

The West’s False Choice in Ukraine

The crossroads is not between war and compromise, but between victory and defeat.

Illustrated portraits of Reps. MIke Gallagher, right, and Raja Krishnamoorthi
Illustrated portraits of Reps. MIke Gallagher, right, and Raja Krishnamoorthi

The Masterminds

Washington wants to get tough on China, and the leaders of the House China Committee are in the driver’s seat.