Stocks fell for a third straight day, Tuesday, extending losses following another batch of pro-taper economic news. Market worries that the Federal Reserve will soon begin draining liquidity were exacerbated when a New York Fed official said the central bank has been using reverse repos since September as a way to introduce more restrictive monetary policy. Shares of financial and mining stocks fared the worst.
Blue chips pared some of their earlier losses with the Dow Jones Industrials Index limping back from a triple-digit decline in morning trade. A strong day for Apple (AAPL) after announcing a new acquisition helped turn the tech sector positive, limiting declines for the Nasdaq Composite index .
Mostly positive year-over-year gain in auto sales failed to ignite much investor enthusiasm, Tuesday, with shares of Ford Motor Co. (F) and General Motors (GM) both falling. In a light day for economic data, Gallup's Economic Confidence Index continued to slide although the 6-point decline to a minus-25 reading, which was smaller than expected.
Also, Tuesday, the Redbook same-store sales index rose 4.9% during the week ended Nov. 30, building on a 3.8% rise during the prior week.
Commodities were mixed. Crude oil for January delivery rose $2.21 to settle at $96.04 per barrel while January natural gas fell 2 cents to finish at $3.97 per 1 million BTU. February gold slid $1.30 to $1,220.70 per ounce, helping contribute to a 1.2% fall for the mining and materials sector. March silver was off 24 cents to $19.22 per ounce while March copper fell a penny to $3.17 per pound.
Here's Where The U.S. Markets Stood At Day's End
- Dow Jones Industrial Average down 52.11 (-0.51%) to 10084.91
- S&P 500 down 5.75 (-0.32%) to 1795.15
- Nasdaq Composite Index down 8.06 (-0.20%) to 4037.19
- Hang Seng Index down 0.53%
- Shanghai China Composite Index up 0.69%
- FTSE 100 Index down 0.95%
- (+) ETRM, Trial data for the company's VBLOCK weight-loss therapy shows it continues to be durable and safe 18 months later.
- (+) CNAT, U.S. Food and Drug Administration grants orphan drug status for the company's Emricasan drug candidate - now in Phase IIb testing - to stymie recurrent fibrosis and cirrhosis in liver-transplant recipients.
- (+) TSLA, Tesla's Model S was cleared of any safety defect in a review by German transportation regulators.
- (-) KKD, Donut-maker dunked after preliminary FY15 earning guidance expecting $0.71 to $0.76 per share trails expectations by at least $0.03.
- (-) LDOS, The company cuts its financial guidance for the 12 months ending Jan. 31, 2014, because of a significantly weaker Q3 performance.
- (-) TAXI, Shares tumble after the specialty lender prices public offering of 2.9 million shares of its common stock at $16.40 apiece.
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