The stock markets in the United States dropped today. The S&P 500’s seventh straight gain in December was trimmed by today’s decline, according to Bloomberg.
The S&P 500 reached a record-level for the 53rd time while the Dow Jones reached more than 18,000 points for the first time this year. Today, the Dow Jones dropped below that level.
The S&P 500 gained 0.8% in December driven by the better-than-expected growth of the U.S. economy. The country’s GDP growth rate for the third quarter was revised upward to 5% by the Department of Commerce.
Herbert Perus, head of equities at Raiffeisen Capital Management commented, “The U.S. economy is doing well. Some stocks seem overpriced, but if you look deeper into the market you find a lot of good managed companies with good products that are still not expensive.”
U.S. equities experienced positive momentum this month, which contributed to the 13% gain of the S&P 500 and 8.5% for the Dow Jones for 2014.
[drizzle]Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserves commented, “The United States is doing better than anybody else, but we’re still not doing all that well. We still have a very sluggish economy.”
According to him, the U.S. economy will only experience full recovery if American companies will increase investments in productive assets and if the housing market rebounds.
Robert Shiller, a professor of economics at Yale University and co-founder of S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices told CNBC that he felt a bit of anxiety regarding the housing market because of the recent increases in home prices. He was worried about the fast acceleration of home prices in certain markets such as San Francisco wherein he sees a little housing bubble. According to him, the market is fragile.
Sign up for our free daily newsletter
U.S. Markets
(Figures as of 2:57 P.M in New York)
- Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) – 17,982.78 (-0.31%)
- S&P 500- 2,081.67 (-0.43%)
- NASDAQ- 4,284.39 (-0.55%)
- Russell 2000- 1,214.51 (-0.38%)
European Markets
- EURO STOXX 50 Price EUR- 3,135.95 (-1.55%)
- FTSE 100 Index- 6,547.00 (-1.30%)
- Deutsche Borse AG German Stock Index DAX- 9,805.55 (-1.22%)
Asia-Pacific Markets
- Nikkei 225- 17,450.77 (-1.57%)
- Hong Kong Hang Seng Index- 23,501.10 (-1.14%)
- Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 Index- 3,457.55 (+0.06%)
Stocks in Focus
The stock price of Neuroderm Ltd (NDRM) surged more than 150% to $15.53 per share around 2:44 in the afternoon in New York. The company revealed that data from its mid-stage study for its drug for Parkinson disease showed promising results.
Civeo Corp (CVEO) suffered continues to decline after the company announced its 2015 operating guidance. The stock dropped more than 25% after-hours yesterday. At the time of this writing, CVEO is trading at $3.92 per share, down by more than 52%.
The shares of Expedia were down more than 2% to $86.30 per share. FBR analyst Jake Fuller warned that the company’s U.S. bookings may not be able to meet the consensus bookings of high-20s growth for the fourth quarter. He maintained an Outperform rating and $100 price target for the stock.
[/drizzle]
