The stock markets in the United States fluctuated on Monday. By the end of the trading session, The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and NASDAQ gained 0.07% and 0.05%, respectively. The S&P 500 fell 0.15% while the Russell 2000 dropped 0.13%.
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Today, Bloomberg reported that one of most powerful markets on record co-existed with the weakest economic recovery for nearly six years since the World War II. The media entity noted that investors want to change that trend based on the selloff in equities this month.
The market volatility increased to a three-year high while the S&P 500 index dropped as much as 9.8% over the past 26 days that ended October 15. The decline was attributed to different issues including the Ebola virus, the weakness of the economic recovery in Europe, the stronger U.S. dollar and the Federal Reserve among others.
In a telephone interview, Daniel Genter told Bloomberg, “I don’t think the dispersion can sustain at the level that it did, which is why the market is struggling. The market wants to see growth going in the right direction or it’s going to be upset.”
[drizzle]On the other hand, Laszlo Birinyi, president of Birinyi Associates opined, “I don’t think you can find a relationship, a consistent ratio, between economic growth and the stock market.” He added, “Maybe what we saw in 2010, 2011 was a stronger market than the economy. Maybe going forward, we’ll see the economy catch up and the stock market may not have strong gains.”
Data from Bloomberg showed that the S&P 500 rose 4.7% per quarter since March 2009 to June 2014. The growth of the index was five times faster than the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), the biggest gap since 1947.
U.S. Markets
- Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) – 16,817.68 (+0.07%)
- S&P 500- 1,961.62 (-0.15%)
- NASDAQ- 4,485.93 (+0.05%)
- Russell 2000- 1,117.40 (-0.13%)
European Markets
- EURO STOXX 50 Price EUR- 2,998.84. (-1.04%)
- FTSE 100 Index- 6,363.46 (-0.40%)
- Deutsche Borse AG German Stock Index DAX- 8,902.61 (-0.95%)
Asia-Pacific Markets
- Nikkei 225- 15,388.72 (+0.63%)
- Hong Kong Hang Seng Index- 23,143.23 (-0.68%)
- Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 Index- 2,368.83 (-0.91%)
Stocks in Focus
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) slightly declined to $105.11 per share today. CVS Health Corp (NYSE:CVS) and Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE:RAD) rejected Apple Pay as both pharmacy chain operators are working with Wal-Mart Stores, Inc (NYSE:WMT) on a mobile payment system called CurrentC .
The stock price of Vitae Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:VTAE) surged more than 50% to $13.70 per share after the company revealed positive topline results from two Phase 1 clinical trials of BACE Inhibitor (BI1181181/VTP-37948) for the treatment and prevention Alzheimer’s disease.
The shares of Alexza Pharmaceuticals, Inc (NASDAQ:ALXA) rose more than 23% to $2.80 per share after announcing the Grupo Ferrer Internacional, S.A. agreed to acquire 2 million of its common stock for $4.00 per share.
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