Stocks slide, then recover, after Donald Trump Jr. tweets Russia bombshell

After drifting along in innocuous fashion for much of the morning, stocks were rocked by Donald Trump Jr.'s shocking decision to release what he said was the full email correspondence between himself and a music publicist believed to have helped arrange a meeting in June 2016 at Trump Tower with a woman who was identified in the emails as a "Russian government attorney."

The sharp reaction showed stocks aren't yet immune to politics, even though they've looked increasingly numb to shocking Trump headlines.

The price action that followed also showcased another ongoing stock market theme: Buying the dip, which saw traders quickly scoop up shares at a slight discount, helping major indices erase losses. It's the latest example of theme that's recurred throughout the eight-year bull market, with fundamentally bullish investors viewing moderate weakness as a buying opportunity.

The S&P 500 dropped as much as 0.6% on the news after trading little-changed for most of the morning. It was trading 0.3% lower as of 1:39 p.m. ET. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid less than 0.1%, while the more tech-heavy Nasdaq composite gauge was unchanged. Both indexes pared deeper losses felt immediately after the Trump Jr. news.

The CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX, which has sat dormant near record lows for much of the year, spiked more than 9% before paring its gains. Even at its intraday peak, the so-called stock-market fear gauge still sat about 40% below its bull market average.

The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 2.36% after trading as high as 2.39% before the release. The spot price of gold, historically considered to be a safe-haven asset, rose as much as 0.6% amid the uncertainty, and is now up 0.1%.

In currency markets, the ruble slid as much as 1.3% versus the US dollar, although the Russian currency was already down about 0.9% before the news. Meanwhile, the greenback weakened versus six of the so-called Group of 10 currencies, including a 0.2% loss against the yen.

The unexpected Trump Jr. news put another stock market theme back in play: the so-called Trump trade. Built around the stock groups expected to be most impacted by potential policies, it saw the immediate selling and subsequent dip-buying that occurred throughout the broader market.

Here's a roundup:

Stocks slide, then recover, after Donald Trump Jr. tweets Russia bombshell

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