The Stock Market Is Tanking. Here’s What’s Going Wrong.

It’s tough to pin investor skittishness on any one thing. Coronavirus is spreading again in Europe, and there’s talk of another lockdown being a possibility in the U.K.

A group of investigative journalists detailed suspicious activity reports filed by global banks, causing shares of Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Chase shares, among others, to slide.

But wait, there’s more. The sale of a portion of TikTok by Chinese firm ByteDance raised the specter of retaliation. The pending U.S. Supreme Court battle following the death of Justice Ginsburg, and nagging concerns over high stock market valuation also loom over the market.

Whatever the reason, investors will need their umbrella and galoshes to weather the deluge of bad news.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar has moved to bar any health agency from signing new rules on vaccines, medicines, medical devices, and food, in a move that some worry will muzzle scientific voices in the U.S., although his chief of staff said the move was simply a “housekeeping matter.”

What’s Next: All governments are caught in the same short-term dilemma—protect the population or protect the economy. But the rising choir of warnings from scientists, as well as halfhearted compliance of populations with the lightened restrictions (such as mask-wearing) enacted since May, may soon leave them with not much choice.