The Dow has its biggest loss since October

For the first time in modern history, ExxonMobil is facing a battle to oust its board of directors.

Engine No. 1, a new activist investment firm, carried through on its threat to nominate four independent director candidates to Exxon's board. The fact that Exxon (XOM) faces a credible board fight underscores how disillusioned shareholders are about the iconic company's staggering decline.

Exxon needs a "clean break from a strategy and mindset that have led to years of value destruction and poorly positioned the company for the future," Activist No. 1 said in a statement.

In a statement, Exxon said it has been in talks with Engine No. 1 since mid-November and the company's board affairs committee will "evaluate" the investor's nominees.

Exxon promised to update investors in the coming weeks on its "strategy to build long-term, sustainable value for shareholders."

The struggling company is discussing adding one or more new directors to its board and stepping up sustainability investments, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources.

Engine No. 1 said a "reactive short-term approach is no substitute for a proactive long-term strategy that addresses the threats and opportunities facing the company in a changing world."

The once-sizzling stock market is suddenly under fire.

The Dow tumbled as much as 584 points, or 1.9%, Wednesday morning before paring its losses a bit.

If the Dow finishes in the red Wednesday, it would be its longest losing streak since a seven-day nosedive in late February.

The big difference, of course, is in the magnitude of the losses.

During the current slump, the Dow is down a maximum of 2.7%. That's a drop in the bucket compared to last February, when the index plummeted nearly 4,000 points, or 13%, on surging coronavirus fears.

Yet despite the recent slide, the Dow is still within striking distance of its all-time highs.

Is there a better time to have issues with your trading platform of choice than when the market is down more than 1%?

It looks like that's what's happening -- again.

Downdetector is flagging issues for users of Robinhood, Charles Schwab (SCHW), Fidelity (FNF) and ETrade. Several platforms also had problems on Monday, when the market briefly, but sharply, sold off.

Less than 30 minutes into the trading day, it's looking ugly.

All three major indexes are sharply in the red and the Dow has shed more than 500 points.

It's too soon to tell if this is the correction market analysts have been warning we need, but note that those same strategists also believe periods of correction are healthy and not a reason to rethink all your investment decisions.

The Dow was down 1.7%, or 518 points.

The S&P 500 fell 1.9% and the Nasdaq Composite was down 2.1%.

Big Oil is gearing up for a fight over President Joe Biden's imminent freeze on new oil and gas leases on federal lands.

"We will do everything we can to fight this executive order," American Petroleum Institute CEO Mike Sommers told CNN Business.

In a bid to address the climate crisis, Biden is expected to order a moratorium on new leases on federal lands and water ways. The API, the oil and gas industry's most powerful lobbying group, relaunched an ad blitz this week that warns that a ban on federal leasing will hurt state funding of public schools.

"We will pursue every action at our disposal to push back, including legal options, if appropriate," Sommers said. "We're concerned about what this leads to next. We're raising the alarm."

The resistance shows how quickly tensions have ratcheted up between Biden and the oil industry. During his first day in office, Biden moved to rejoin the Paris Agreement on climate change, revoked a permit for the construction of the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline and placed a temporary moratorium on oil and gas leasing in the Arctic.

US stocks dropped at the opening bell on Wednesday, as investors anxiously await more corporate earnings and an update from the Federal Reserve.   

Apple (AAPL), Facebook (FB) and Tesla (TSLA) are all slated to report results after the close today.

Meanwhile, the Fed will release its monetary policy decision at 2pm, followed by a press conference at 2.30pm ET.

In economic data, durable goods orders for December grew at a much slower pace than expected.

The Federal Reserve is adamant that the current, low interest rate environment won't lead to a sudden, unmanageable spike in inflation. But market experts have a slightly different view.

"I think it's fair to assume we're going back into an era of inflation" Larry Fink, chairman and CEO of BlackRock (BLK) said on a digital panel at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Saudi Arabia.

On top of that, there has been a global trend towards more domestic buying, which Fink called "a basic inflationary trend."

If inflation starts rising, the Fed could begin to raise interest rates.

The central bank will release its monetary policy update this afternoon at 2pm ET.

"There's an evolutionary process that's underway in terms of China," said Bridgewater Associates's Ray Dalio

China differentiated itself through growth and opening up its capital markets, the hedge fund manager said, "and it's competitiveness in those capital markets is attracting capital flows."

This means the United States and China are competing on multiple fronts, including technology and capital markets.

On top of that comes the internationalization of the Chinese renminbi and the nation's standing as a massive trading powerhouse. So keep an eye on what's going on in China, because it will matter, Dalio said.

2020 was a bombastic year for the stock market. But can the rally continue this year?

Ray Dalio of Bridgewater Associates doesn't think 2021 will be as buoyant for stocks as last year was, he said on a digital panel at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Saudi Arabia.

BlackRock (BLK) CEO and chairman Larry Fink agrees 2021 won't be as opulent as last year, even as the long-term conditions for investors are still favorable.

"Some of the expected recovery [in the economy] is already priced in," said Dr. Thomas P. Gottstein, CEO of Credit Suisse (CS), at the event. But the low interest rate environment means that stocks will continue to be more attractive for investors than other investments, such as bonds.

Meanwhile, the pickup in deficits as governments spent big to fund stimulus programs will mean that countries such as the United States will have to sell more bonds.

"I don't believe there is enough demand for those bonds," Dalio said, so the Federal Reserve might have to step in to buy more bonds to bridge the gap.

Elsewhere, the trend to go public through SPACs -- special purpose acquisition companies, publicly traded investment vehicles that buy other businesses -- is spurring a lot of M&A activity. Coupled with a lot of capital waiting to be deployed, these conditions are "very constructive" for the M&A market, said Goldman Sachs (GS) CEO David Solomon at the event.