The stock markets in the United States declined again as investors reduce risk in their portfolios and rotate out of the biggest gainers in the bull market. Equities in the technology and financial sector suffered losses today.
In a telephone interview with Bloomberg, John Fox, director of research Fenimore Asset Management said, “People are reducing their risk portfolios a little bit. Some of the speculative parts of the market have been selling off.” He added that if the reason for owning a particular stock is it is gaining, and the stock price stops going up, “there’s no reason to own it.”
According to Bloomberg, the gains recorded by the S&P 500 for 2014 vanished in today’s decline. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) dropped 0.03%, the S&P 500 fell 0.19%, and the Nasdaq went down by 0.54%.
On the other hand, Cameron Hinds, chief investment officer at Wells Fargo Private Bank commented. “The numbers are neutral from an investor’s standpoint. There was no huge, market-moving information. GDP was slightly below, while claims numbers were a little bit more of a positive. It looks like we’re trending in the right direction from an economic standpoint.”
Yesterday, President Barack Obama signaled the possibility of an escalation of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Today, the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives passed separate bills mandating additional sanctions on Russian officials as a result of its annexation of Crimea.
U.S. Markets
- Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA)- 16,264.23 (-0.03%)
- S&P 500- 1,849.04 (-0.19 %)
- NASDAQ- 4,151.23 (-0.54%)
- Russell 2000- 1,150.80 (-0.41%)
European Markets
- EURO STOXX 50 Price EUR- 3,133.75 (+0.11%)
- FTSE 100 Index- 6,588.32 (-0.26%)
- Deutsche Borse AG German Stock Index DAX- 9,451.21 (+0.03%)
Asia Pacific Markets
- Nikkei 225- 14,622.89 (+1.01%)
- Hong Kong Hang Seng Index- 21,834.45 (-0.24%)
- Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 Index- 2,155.71 (-0.71%)
Stocks in Focus
The stock price of Accenture Plc (NYSE:ACN) declined more than 5% to $8.80 per share after the second largest technology consulting company stated that it expects a continued challenging business environment. The ongoing conflict in Eastern Europe adds an additional level of uncertainty in the market place. Accenture reported $1.03 earnings per share on $7.13 billion revenue for its fiscal second quarter.
The shares of Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) fell 5.40% to $47.45 per share after failing to receive approval for its proposed dividend increase to $0.05 per share and a $6.4 billion shares repurchase program. The Federal Reserve was concerned with the ability of the bank to forecast losses in some of its international operations and to reflect all business exposures in its internal stress test.
GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME) plummeted over 4% to $37.33 per share after issuing lower than expected guidance for the full year. The company also disclosed its plan to reduce the number of its video game stores by 2%.
