Stocks calmed down quite a bit from yesterday’s Fed minutes melee, leaving us with a mixed session on Thursday that saw a couple of losing skids come to an end. However, all of the major indices go into Friday’s session with solid losses for the week.
The S&P managed to advance 0.13% today to 4405.80 and the NASDAQ rose 0.11% (or nearly 16 points) to 14,541.79, which ended losing streaks of two days and three days, respectively. Unfortunately, the Dow is now stuck in a three-day slump after slipping 0.19% (or about 66 points) to 34,894.12.
The market had an outburst yesterday in the wake of the Fed minutes for July, which suggested that members are growing more open to scaling back stimulus measures such as asset purchases. Investors would rather not hear about any tapering whatsoever but are especially unnerved by the possibility of something happening this year.
As a result, the S&P and Dow both dropped more than 1% on Wednesday, while the NASDAQ was almost there with a slide of 0.9%. The indices each go into Friday’s session with losses of more than 1% over the past four days, leaving them in danger of losing ground for the full week.
NASDAQ.com
Jim Giaquinto