Losses Across The Board – Acadiana Business Index

It was another volatile trading session on Wall Street today. Ken Meyers has your stock market report on the Acadiana Business Index.

• The Dow finished down 64 points to 13008, the S&P 500 Index closed with a loss of nearly 6 points to 1379 and the NASDAQ was lower by 6 points to 2939.
• Investors overlooked a batch of encouraging economic reports ahead of policy decisions from the U.S. Fed and the ECB.
• Housing data showed improvement as the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index posted the smallest year-over-year decline since September 2010.
• Gauges on the consumer were also better than expected. Consumer confidence increased for the first time in five months and June personal income rose 0.5% while consumer spending was unchanged.
• The Chicago PMI also bested expectations as the pace of business activity rose in July to its highest level since April.
• Despite the positive data, investors remained cautious and turned to the defensive characteristics of telecom with AT&T up 49 cents to $37.92.
• On the downside, consumer discretionary stocks lost ground led by a drop in Coach’s shares after the company posted weak fourth-quarter sales results to push it down $11.25 to $49.33.
• Energy also gave up ground due to a retreat in crude oil prices and as BP posted a disappointing profit tally leading its shares to decline $1.92 to $49.90.
• Overall, NYSE Composite volume totaled over 3.7 billion shares. The NYSE was 3-2 negative on issues and 2-1 negative on volume. On the NASDAQ, decliners beat advancers by 3-2 on issues and on volume.
• In bondland, Treasuries finished higher with the 10-year note up 8/32 to yield 1.47%.