All across Wall Street, day by day, the headlong rush into the most popular trades, from tech stocks to gold to cryptocurrencies, has given way to a sudden retreat from risk.
There’s been no single cause, like there was last April when President Donald Trump’s trade war sent markets into a fearful tailspin. Instead, it’s been a slow drumbeat of news that is sowing anxiety about valuations that many suspected had already run up too far — and causing investors to pull back all at once.