European Concerns Continue To Drag Down Wall Street – Acadiana Business Index

Equity markets ended lower in the session, albeit off of their worst levels. Ken Meyers has your stock market report on the Acadiana Business Index.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 90 points to 14,421 after being down by as many as 128 points earlier. The S&P 500 gave up nearly 13 points to about 1546 and the NASDAQ shed over 31 points bringing the index to 3222. The NASDAQ was 2-1 negative on issues as well.
• Stocks traded lower from the opening bell, despite positive economic reports on unemployment and manufacturing.
• Concerns over Europe continued to weigh on investors after the EU gave Cyprus just 4 days to secure a bailout agreement.
• All 10 sectors on the S&P ended lower, led by declines in materials. Shares of Alcoa were off 1% to $8.45 and Freeport-McMoRan fell 0.7% to $32.99. On the earnings front, Oracle gave up 9.7% to $32.30 as the company fell short of analysts’ expectations citing internal execution shortfalls. On the upside, KB Home ended higher by 2.5% to $22.10 after the company posted a narrower than expected loss in the quarter.
• Composite volume on the NYSE was 3.2 billion shares with declining issues besting advancers by a 2-1 margin.
• Turning to fixed income markets, Treasuries were higher along the curve. The benchmark 10-year note was up 11/32 to yield 1.92% and the 30-year bond added over a full point to yield 3.14%.

For the complete forecast, click Ken's Market Report.