briefing.com
Close Dow -128.58 at 10886.11, Nasdaq -50.45 at 2485.13, S&P -22.63 at 1332.00: On the heels of yesterday's record-setting session, the equity market was knocked back to reality with an uppercut from the bond market... Plagued by rumors of central banks selling longer-dated paper and a report that Merrill Lynch had cut its bond market allocation, the long-bond fell nearly a point, raising its yield to 5.71%, and instigating a broad-based selloff in the stock market that was led by the financial and technology issues... The latter had managed to buck the early trend as the Internet stocks and big-cap tech leaders benefitted from bargain hunting interest, but when it became apparent that the bond wasn't going to rebound, techs were dragged down with rest of the market amid valuation concerns... In fact, the tech-heavy Nasdaq closed just off its lows for the day after being up 20 points at 11:30 ET... Aside from the airlines, and a handful of other stocks, blue chips were weak throughout the day as investors elected to take profits, focusing their efforts among the financial, retail, drug, and consumer goods stocks... As for the airlines, they were bolstered by a report of a cutback in planned capacity increases at Continental Airlines (CAL +2), and led the DJTA to another record high... Grabbing its share of headlines today was Goldman Sachs (GS +17 at 70), which soared 32% on its first day of trading, and diverged from a noticeably weak financial group... American Express (AXP -5), J.P. Morgan (JPM -3 3/16), Procter & Gamble (PG -2 7/8), and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ -2 3/8) led the Dow's retreat... With increased attention being paid to action in the bond market, and growing concerns of a possible Fed tightening at the FOMC meeting in May (with which Briefing.com does not think will happen), the April jobs report due on Friday will be even more closely watched... DJTA +35.29... DJUA -3.02... SOX -4.59... XOI +2.36... Nasdaq 100 -1.9%.
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