A closing summary of today's action by Briefing .com
<<Close Dow -150.53 at 9425.51, Nasdaq -58.03 at 1843.69, S&P -19.65 at 1009.38: [BRIEFING.COM] The indices opened the session on a road heading south and never looked back... While in the absence of economic reports and market-moving earnings announcements there was no one catalyst for the session's negative bias, rising oil prices and valuation concerns were cited as contributing factors... The 4% spike in the price of crude oil to $28.24/bbl was incited by OPEC's unexpected decision to cut output by 3.5% starting November 1... Valuation concerns are nothing new in the face of the market's sizeable advance off its March lows and the major averages trading near their 52-week highs, but they took their toll on today's market... Keep in mind, however, that the long-term bias for stocks remains favorable considering the historically-low interest rates and inflation, the virtual promise from the Fed to keep rates low for a "considerable" period of time, and the accelerating economy... Interestingly, three Fed Presidents talked up the economy this morning, including Texas Fed President McTeer, Minneapolis Fed President Stern, and St. Louis Fed President Poole, but had little effect on the market... As such, the vast majority of the sectors experienced considerable selling pressure on relatively heavy volume (especially on the Nasdaq, where almost 2.2 bln shares were traded)... As a matter of fact, the only sectors to close the session with gains were the oil services and gold sectors... The advance of the oil services sector came in association with the spike in the price of crude oil, while the resilience of the gold sector was incited by the weaker dollar, which made the precious metal cheaper for overseas buyers, as well as the decline in U.S. equities, which had increased gold's safe-haven appeal... Elsewhere, the bond market started the session lower, but finished with gains, which were at least partially attributable to asset allocation from equities into fixed income... The 10-year note closed up +19/32, bringing its yield down to 4.13%... NYSE Adv/Dec 1104/2168... Nasdaq Adv/Dec 969/2239.>>
Don |
