“Fiscal Cliff” Continues To Put Damper On Wall Street – Acadiana Business Index

Markets finished lower in another volatile trading session. Ken Meyers has your stock market report on the Acadiana Business Index.

• The Dow closed lower by nearly 58 points to 12756. The S&P 500 Index lost over 5 points to 1374 and the NASDAQ gave up 20 points 2883.
• Encouraging retailer profit tallies kept stocks in positive territory early on, but lingering debt concerns both here and abroad dragged markets lower.
• The political wrangling in Washington over the fiscal cliff continued to put a damper on investor sentiment.
• Meanwhile in Europe, lawmakers gave Greece two more years to lower its deficit, but failed to agree on how the country will repay its debt.
• Overall, the majority of sectors were lower. Technology was the worst performing group led by Microsoft’s loss of $1.15 to $27.07. Financials also paced the late retreat as JPMorgan fell 54 cents to $40.04 and Citigroup lost 26 cents to $36.16. However, the defensive utility stocks gained ground as Duke Energy added on 56 cents $62.01. Consumer discretionary shares were also a bright spot thanks to Home Depot’s advance of $2.22 to $63.38 after the company topped earnings expectations and raised its full-year guidance.
• NYSE Composite volume totaled over 3.4 billion shares. The NYSE was 2-1 negative on issues and 9-4 negative on volume. On the NASDAQ, decliners beat advancers by 2-1 on issues and by 7-3 on volume.
• In fixed-income, Treasuries were higher with the 10-year note up 5/32 to yield 1.59%.

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