Words like this drive engagement. Many journalists also don't have statistical training.

I wrote a financial media literacy guide for precisely this reason:

> Extreme Language: Articles use extreme language to represent price movements, as these engage readers (e.g., meltdown, bloodbath, crash, massacre, topple), but are often statistically suspect

https://github.com/nemild/hack-the-media/blob/master/financi...

Some other good notes in this article:

Context Matters. The Stock Market Drop Is Less Scary Than It Seems.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/05/upshot/context-matters-th...