Wall Street closed lower today after a fairly brutal sell-off that kept all benchmark indices in the red for the entirety of the trading session, after what has been an underwhelming earnings season was exacerbated by renewed fears about global economic contraction.
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Standard & Poor’s 500 Index: -0.89 percent to 1,828.47
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Dow Jones Industrial Average: -1.07 percent to 16,197.35
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NASDAQ: -0.57 percent to 4,218.87
Despite the down-day, Sam Stovall of S&P Capital IQ still sees stocks as being very attractive, though the breakdown of the day’s trading by index would seem to paint a much more somber picture.
On the Dow:
Six components finished the day up, with only telecoms AT&T (T) and Verizon Communications (VZ) posting any substantial gains. Meanwhile, news of a potentially contracting Chinese economy in 2014 pulled financial stocks much lower, with American Express (AXP) , JPMorgan Chase (JPM) , and Visa Inc. (V) all off over two percent by the bell.
On the S&P 500:
Despite gains for telecoms, tech shares in general brought the benchmark S&P lower by the end of the day, with Intel (INTC) , Cisco (CSCO) , Micron Technology (MU) and Facebook (FB) all taking substantial losses. All the same, Netflix (NFLX) was the index’s best performer, adding over 16 percent after the company reported a stellar financial performance during its recently-ended fourth quarter.
On the NASDAQ:
Tech and financial stocks weighed heavily on the exchange, but Ariad Pharmaceuticals (ARIA) was a standout, adding over 12 percent amid rumors that the company was a buyout candidate for Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY) .
Apple (AAPL) , meanwhile, jumped nearly one percent on news that Carl Icahn had bought yet another $500 million of the company’s shares. For more on Apple’s stock, readers are encouraged to have a look at Michael Van Dulken’s article from earlier in the day.
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