Although markets rose modestly in the first two hours of trading, they soon slumped back and finished the day markedly lower to start the week. The Dow finished the day down by 0.4% while the S&P 500 suffered greater losses of 0.6%. However, these declines were modest compared to the tumble in the Nasdaq, as the tech-heavy benchmark slid more than 1.6% on the day thanks to a nearly 3% slide from Oracle and a 2% tumble from both Google and Apple. Commodity markets also slumped to start the week as gold retreated marginally and oil continued its recent spat of weakness, selling off by 2.6% in the session. Other key products such as RBOB and silver also saw more weakness as well; silver declined by 3.6% while RBOB fell by just over 5% on the day. Some strength was seen in some of the soft commodities, notably cotton and corn, but overall it was a day of losses in this asset class as well. In currencies and bonds, the euro strengthened by about one cent against the greenback thanks to the U.S. hitting the debt ceiling, although the effects of this have not been very widespread as of late as yields declined on both the two and ten year Treasurys to start the week. [click to continue…]
Although markets dipped to start Tuesday trading, they soon erased their early losses and powered ahead to solid gains for the session. The Dow and the S&P 500 both finished ahead by 0.7% while the tech-heavy Nasdaq soared higher by just under 1% thanks to strength from AT&T, Qualcomm, and Oracle. Commodity markets also generally [...]
U.S. equity markets finished the last day of February on a high note as most stocks finished the day in the green as oil continued its sell off and U.S. worker income rose by 1% for January. The Dow finished up by 96 points on the day while the S&P 500 rose by 0.6% and [...]
Despite continued tension in the Middle East, American equities managed to finish the day flat thanks to strong earnings reports and sliding oil prices. The Dow declined by 37 points while the S&P 500 fell by a single point, however, the Nasdaq managed to post a decent gain on the day, rising by just under [...]
Despite a push for greener technologies across the board, consumers have been relatively slow to adopt electric cars here in the United States. In fact, only 1.5 million hybrids are currently on the roads in the country out of a total 250 million cars overall, while all-electric cars make up an even smaller amount that [...]
U.S. equity markets had an especially choppy session in Wednesday trading as geopolitical events continued to weigh on the main indexes. All three of the main benchmarks– the Dow, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 all finished the day within five points of their opening values as markets sold off marginally to close out the [...]
While most investors are relatively familiar with metals such as gold and copper, few know anything about an increasingly vital group of resources known as “rare earths.” As the name suggests, these metals are very scarce, but are needed for a variety of modern technologies ranging from alternative fuels to consumer electronics to defense and [...]
President Barack Obama is scheduled to address the nation from the Oval Office on Tuesday night, a setting historically reserved for speeches made during times of crisis. With the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico reaching an “inflection point,” the president will aim to silence critics who have bashed the White House for [...]
After news of fraud charges against Goldman Sachs broke last Friday, anxiety built over the weekend and investors watched nervously to see if markets would plummet this week. But markets saw a relatively clam week, with most indexes posting moderate gains despite more trouble in Greece and jumping gas prices. It was another eventful week [...]
Alternative energy remains a fast growing market segment not only in the world of ETFs, but in terms of total investment as well. Since 2005, investment in clean energy increased by 230% to $162 billion in 2009. Echoing similar trends occurring throughout the global economy, emerging markets have stepped up their push to become leaders [...]
Although equity markets generally headed higher in the first quarter of 2010, there were a few funds that were not so lucky and became the early leaders in the Laggard of The Year race. The S&P 500 finished the quarter up close to 6%, but European markets stumbled in the wake of an on-and-off crisis [...]
