A late day swoon on Wall Street left the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 modestly lower as Wall Street's inability to match Thursday's massive rebound, coupled with recent volatility and holiday-thinned conditions encouraged investors to book profits into the final hour of trade. Led by losses in energy and industrial stocks, the Dow reversed a 200+ point gain at the open to close 76 points lower.
After a head-spinning week that saw the Dow tossed in a 1,600 point range, blue chips closed higher for the first time in four weeks with a 2.7% gain. The S&P 500 was up 2.6% while the Nasdaq took the lead with a 4% gain from last Friday's close.
Thursday's massive reversal extended into overseas trading with stocks across Asia and Europe capitalizing on the Dow's 860 point rally into yesterday's close. After a strong open, Wall Street's major averages straddled the flatline for the bulk of the afternoon as participants waited for another late-day assist from pension fund repositioning. When it looked like funds were noticeably absent, investors sold into the close, turning a 240 point gain into a 76 point loss.
The late sell-off in equities underpinned Treasury securities with the 10-year yield dropping 3 basis points. Gold gained ground and closed higher for a second day while silver made the most of the flight-to-safety and was higher for a fourth consecutive day.
Data released this morning included a decline in the Chicago purchasing managers index to 65.4 from 66.4 in November, above the estimated 62.4. Pending home sales fell 0.7% in November, missed expectations for a 1.5% gain. Year-over-year, pending sales were down 7.7%, the biggest drop in four years.
US MARKETS
Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 76.42 points (-0.33%)
S&P 500 was down 3.09 points (-0.12%)
Nasdaq Composite Index was up 5.03 points (+0.08%)
GLOBAL SENTIMENT
FTSE 100 was up 2.27%
Nikkei 225 was down 0.31%
Hang Seng Index was up 0.10%
Shanghai China Composite Index was up 0.44%
UPSIDE MOVERS
(+) VTVT (+120.39%) Exercises right to compel MacAndrews & Forbes Group to buy 0.8 million shares of the company at a price of $1.84 per share
(+) WFT (+25.44%) Offers to exchange up to $600 million of 9.875% senior notes due 2025
(+) OPK (+24.90%) To pay fines to settle SEC action
DOWNSIDE MOVERS
(-) RSLS (-24.06%) Notified of Nasdaq delisting
(-) OBLN (-13.79%) Signs two financing deals totalling $30 million
(-) SIR (-1.71%) Completed distribution of 45 million common shares of Industrial Logistics Properties Trust
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
