After a somewhat chaotic week, stock markets fell flat during Friday’s trading session as investors digested the latest bombardment of both domestic and foreign news reports. The biggest headline of the week was the announcement of J.P. Morgan’s monumental trading blunder; a staggering $2 billion loss was incurred after the firm tried to scale back on its excessively risky derivatives positions. However, investors were able to welcome some good news on the home front, which helped offset the impact of J.P. Morgan’s losses. Unexpectedly, the U.S. consumer sentiment report came in better than expected, rising to its highest levels since 2008. On the Euro Zone horizon, investors continued to become frustrated as Greece’s socialist party reported that they failed to form a new coalition government, leading many to become even more uncertain on the outlook of the country’s debt negotiations [see also 3 ETFs For A Euro Zone Double-Dip]. [click to continue…]
This week proved to be a rather disappointing one as worse-than-expected jobs data shocked the markets, forcing the Nasdaq to its biggest single-session drop since November. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 1.27%, while both the S&P and Nasdaq logged in their worst weekly performances of 2012. The violent drop was spurred by less than cheery non-farm payrolls [...]
After last week’s disappointing trading session, markets strived to make somewhat of a turnaround, with blue chips leading the way after several companies posted better-than-expected quarterly reports. The Dow Jones, S&P 500, and Nasdaq all posted positive gains at Friday’s close, landing the indexes in a good position to record the first weekly gains of Q2. Positive [...]
Stock markets took their worst tumble these past few days, posting 2012′s biggest weekly decline yet. Disappointing economic data from China coupled with troubling news concerning Spain’s borrowing costs led major indexes to fall dramatically; the S&P 500 dropped 130 basis points, while Nasdaq shed 44.2 points, or 1.5%. Many investors question whether this recent drop is simply [...]
After closing out the first quarter on a positive note, stock markets seemed to take a slight tumble this week, posting some of the biggest weekly declines in 2012. Disappointing economic data coupled with less than cheery news from overseas helped curb the bullish momentum that has been dominating markets so far this year. On Friday, U.S. [...]
With the first quarter of 2012 on the books, stocks managed to make one more final push this week, posting its best quarterly gains in more than a decade. Better-than-expected U.S. economic data coupled with positive news from the Euro zone sent equities rallying: the Dow Jones gained 0.5%, Nasdaq was up 4 points, and [...]
Broad equity markets got off to a rocky start this week, but managed to erase their earlier losses with energy stocks successfully overshadowing worse-than-expected U.S. housing data. The Commerce Department announced that housing sales fell for the second consecutive month in February, leading many investors to believe that the housing market is not quite on [...]
Stocks fell flat at the end of this week after both the Nasdaq and Dow had logged in their seventh-straight winning streaks. The earlier rally edged both indexes into post-crisis, record breaking territory, an encouraging sign that perhaps the equity markets are well on their way to a full recovery. Friday’s lackluster session was in [...]
After months of seemingly never-ending debates, the Greek negotiations finally came to a close this week as the country went forward with the proposed bond swap. A financial industry group dubbed Greece’s debt restructuring a “credit event”, in which holders of Greek credit default swaps will be entitled to compensations. On the home front, investors welcomed more good news as [...]
Equity markets seemed to take a breather this week, easing off last week’s wild rally and closing out in negative territory by the end of Friday’s trading session. Small cap equities have been under the microscope lately as the sector struggles to keep up with the recent bullish market. For some investors, this lagging should [...]
Despite continuing euro-zone uncertainty and less than cheery U.S. economic data, domestic stock markets posted weekly gains with the Dow Jones finishing strong at its 52-week high. Although some investors remain tentative, euro-zone concerns subsided after European leaders signaled progress towards an agreement on a bailout for Greece. On the home front, U.S. economic data [...]
