The stock markets in the United States went down due to the weakness of equities and the decline of oil prices.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and the S&P 500 fell 0.17% and 0.36%, respectively. The NASDAQ 0.20% gained today.
In a telephone interview with Bloomberg, Bruce Bittles, chief investment strategist RW Baird & Co. said, “You have five weeks of S&P growth; we may be in the overbought territory. You generally don’t continue to grow forever.”
Last week, the S&P 500 reached 2,006.81 points, an increase of 0.46% driven by speculations that the Federal Reserve will not accelerate its plan to increase interest rates after the Department of Labor reported lower-than-expected jobs data.
According to Doug Cote, chief market strategist at Voya Investment Management LLC, investors reacted on the news regarding the potential separation of Scotland from United Kingdom. However, he emphasized that the “key drivers” for the decline of the stock markets are the improvement of economic data, which increases the probability for an earlier than expected interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve.
U.S. Markets
- Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA)- 17,111.42 (-0.15%)
- S&P 500- 2,001.53 (-0.31%)
- NASDAQ- 4,592.29 (+0.20%)
- Russell 2000- 1,169.77 (+0.22%)
European Markets
- EURO STOXX 50 Price EUR- 3,267.54 (-0.24%)
- FTSE 100 Index- 6,834.77 (-0.30%)
- Deutsche Borse AG German Stock Index DAX- 9,758.03 (+0.11%)
Asia-Pacific Markets
- Nikkei 225- 15,705.11(+0.23%)
- Hong Kong Hang Seng Index- 25,190.45 (-0.20%)
- Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 Index- 2,449.26 (+0.95%)
Stocks in Focus
The shares of Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) dropped more than 2% to $16.77 per share after Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jones downgraded his rating for the stock to Underweight and lowered his price target to $16 per share. Jones explained that the downgrade was due to concerns that the retooling of the two factories of the automaker in Michigan and Kansas City would cause unexpected delays, which could hurt its profitability. The analyst also believed that the business cycle of the auto industry in North America is reaching maturity.
The stock price of Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) increased more than 5% to $41.74 per share on the report that Alibaba Group Holding Limited is seeking to raise as much as $21 billion from its initial public offering (IPO) in the United States. Yahoo owns 22 percent stake in the Chinese e-commerce giant.
Multimedia Games Holding Company Inc (NASDAQ:MGAM) surged 30% to $36.14 per share after announcing its agreement to be acquired by Global Cash Access Holdings, Inc (NYSE:GCA) for approximately $1.2 billion.
