The broad selling activity that finished off the previous week’s trading activity extended itself into Monday’s action, with stocks once again taking substantial losses across the board. Concerns over a relatively slower Chinese economy in 2014, along with fears of further reductions to Treasury spending on the part of the Federal Reserve seem to have become significant enough to prompt investors to head for the exits at least in the short-term.
Economic Data: New home sales for December fell 7 percent, but the housing market in 2013 still had its best year since 2008 according the the Department of Commerce.
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Dow Jones Industrial Average: -0.26 percent to 15,837.88
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S&P 500: -0.49 percent to 1,781.56
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NASDAQ: -1.08 percent to 4,083.61
On the Dow:
The benchmark Industrials didn’t finish the day higher, but industrial goods companies posted strong gains, with Caterpillar (CAT) bouncing back 6 percent on strong earnings, followed by United Technologies Corp. ($UTX), up nearly 2 percent. Financials and blue-chips were an insurmountable counterweight, however, with Visa (V) , Goldman Sachs (GS) , American Express (AXP) , as well as Microsoft (MSFT) and IBM (IBM) down at least 1.50 percent each.
On the S&P 500:
Social media techs had a bad day on the S&P, with Facebook (FB) and Yahoo! (YHOO) down significantly, and Xerox Corp. (XRX) shedding nearly 6 percent of its share price by the closing bell.
Apple Inc. (AAPL) was up nearly 1 percent ahead of its much anticipated earnings report.
On the NASDAQ:
The sell-off was the most brutal on the NASDAQ, with Ariad Pharmaceuticals (ARIA) tanking 12 percent on the heaviest trading of the day after concerns emerged about the stock being overbought. Otherwise, techs were most responsible for sending the index lower. Intel (INTC) , Vodafone Group (VOD) , Plug Power Inc. (PLUG) , and Groupon (GRPN) were just some of the companies who saw shares drop significantly.
Out Top Stories:
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Our interview with Dara Albright on the prospects for Crowdfunding.
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Precious metals stocks that did really well last week as the sell-off was ramping up.
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Equities.com Executive Editor Henry Truc on why Twitter (TWTR) dropped 9 percent on the day on no apparent news.
