Worries Galore
Violence in the Middle East, soaring oil prices, and an earnings warning from
Dow component Home Depot
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the Nasdaq slid 3.0%, and the S&P 500 lost 2.6%.
Financial stocks were hit particularly hard on concerns about a potential
shooting war breaking out in the Middle East. J.P. Morgan fell 7% and that
combined with Home Depot’s 29% drop to clobber the Dow.Â
Volume was very heavy for the second-straight day, although the 2.08 billion
shares traded on the Nasdaq was about 10% lighter than Wednesday’s level. 1.37
billion shares changed hands on the NYSE, and that was about even with
Wednesday.
“I think today it’s all about the Middle East, but you also have to look at this in the context of what we’ve had
happen in the last several days,” said John Trammell, Managing Director, Argonaut Capital
Management.
“With the earnings warnings that we’ve had from several major companies and the prospects of higher crude oil prices because of
demand and supply problems let alone war problems, it just looks like the economy is just on much less certain footing than it was two quarters
ago,” he added.
According to preliminary numbers, the Dow dropped 379.85 to 10,033.94, the
Nasdaq sank 94.59 to 3073.90, and the S&P 500 slipped 34.95 to 1329.64.
Hardest hit sectors included banks
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down 7.3%, and retailers
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Top-performing sectors were gold and silver
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services
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Dow dogs in addition to J.P. Morgan and Home Depot included International
Paper
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7.2%.
Dow gainers included Intel
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2.2%, and Johnson & Johnson
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Techs managing modestly positive closes included Dell
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and PMC Sierra
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Internets were yet again pummeled, with Yahoo!
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Point
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Looking ahead, the September Producer Price Index and retail sales will be
released at 8:30 AM ET on Friday. Street estimates look for a 0.5% PPI, a 0.1%
core PPI, and a 0.6% increase in retail sales.