Stocks Close Off Week In Negative Territory – Acadiana Business Index

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

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average gave up 72 points to 15,425 after being down by as many as 151 points in early action. The S&P 500 shed 6 points to 1691 and the NASDAQ ended lower by 9 points at 3660. For the week, the Dow fell 1.5%, the S&P was down 1.1% and the NASDAQ gave up 0.8%.
• Stocks failed to build off Thursday’s gains as investors remained concerned that the Federal Reserve may be looking at reducing their level of bond purchases at the September FOMC meeting.
• Nine of the 10 sectors on the S&P ended lower. Material stocks managed to buck the trend as copper and gold prices moved higher. Shares of Freeport-McMoRan gained 2.6% to $31.61. On the earnings front, Priceline.com advanced 3.9% to $969.89 after the company reported better-than-expected earnings and provided a positive full-year outlook. In other news, JCPenny fell 5.8% to $12.87 amid an escalating feud between the company’s Board of Directors and its top investor, Bill Ackman.
• Composite volume on the NYSE was just under 3 billion shares. Issues on the exchange were even. The NASDAQ was 3-2 negative on issues.
• Turning to fixed income markets, Treasuries ended modestly higher along the curve. The benchmark 10-year note was up about 1/8 of a point to yield 2.58% and the 30-year bond added about 3/16 of a point to yield 3.63%.

For your complete economic report, click Ken's Market Report.