Concern is increasing regarding tension in Syria which could result in military action negatively affected trading in the stock markets in the United States. The markets experienced another sell off today.
Yesterday, the stock markets were up during the early morning trading, but suddenly went down after remarks by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that Syria’s use of chemical was undeniable and the international community needs to respond to it.
Randy Bateman, chief investment officer of Huntington Asset Advisors, told Bloomberg that people are monitoring the tension in Syria. He said, “Everybody’s waiting to see what’s going to happen. Is this going to escalate? Energy prices, if they rise a whole lot, could that mitigate all the strength we’ve been seeing lately in the economy? If we’ve got housing prices that start to rise at the same time we have food and fuel increasing, we could see inflation start to rise and that could impact Fed policy.”
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Abbas Araghchi, warned that a military strike against Syria will have “great consequences” to the Middle East. Iran is an ally of Syria.
In addition, investors are also monitoring U.S. government actions regarding the federal spending limit. According to Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, the Obama administration is not willing to negotiate the debt limit and are holding that lawmakers must understand that the United States needs to preserve its “rock solid” pledge for its commitments.
U.S. Markets
- Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA)- 14, 776 (-1.14%)
- S&P 500- 1,630 (-1.59%)
- NASDAQ- 3,578 (-2.16%)
- Russell 2000- 1,013 (-2.38%)
European Markets
- EURO STOXX 50 Price EUR- 2,749 (-2.56%)
- FTSE 100 Index- 6,440 (-0.79%)
- Deutsche Borse AG German Stock Index DAX- 8,242 (-2.28%)
Asia Pacific Markets
- Nikkei 225- 13, 542 (-0.69%)
- Hong Kong Hang Seng Index- 21, 874 (-0.59%)
- Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 Index- 2, 340 (+0.23%)
Stocks In Focus
The stock price of Best Buy Co., Inc (NYSE:BBY) declined by more than 2% to as low as $34.75 per share today after its founder Richard Schulze revealed its plan to sell some of its stake in the electronics retailer to diversify his portfolio and raise money. Schulze owns 20% stake in Best Buy.
BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) is planning to spin off its BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) business as a separate company as it continues to find ways to revive its profitability. Observers in the technology industry speculated that the company is trying to establish BBM as an attractive asset given the fact that it has 60 million users. Last month, the company revealed that it is exploring strategic options including taking the company private or a potential sale. The stock value of the company is down by nearly 4% to around $10.03 a share in New York.
DSW, Inc. (NYSE:DSW) gained by nearly 8% to around $87.84 per share after reporting a better-than-expected second quarter financial results. The company posted $0.97 earnings per share on $562 million revenue compared with the consensus estimate of Wall Street analysts of $0.80 earnings per share on $559 million revenue. The management of the company also raised full year 2013 profit guidance in the range of $3.60 to $3.80 per share.
The stock price of United Continental Holdings Inc (NYSE:UAL) declined by more than 7% to $27.71 per share after oil prices increased by 3% due to the ongoing tension in Syria. The stock price of other airline companies also dropped today.
