The markets opened in positive territory this morning and SPX ran up to $2126 by 10 am ET, but then started a steady slide lower to close down $9 at $2109. RUT was much weaker with a decline of $15 to $1253. Volatility increased almost a full point to 13.1% on VIX. Trading volume increased with 2.4 billion shares of the S&P 500 stocks trading today. Volume increased 1% on the NYSE and increased 13% on NASDAQ (Apple frenzy?).
There was no significant economic news but there was a sell-off in biotech stocks, although no one seemed to understand why. Maybe that spooked the market. I had expected the markets to largely trade sideways until the FOMC announcement on Wednesday afternoon.
All of the financial news and CNBC coverage seemed to focus on Apple and the earnings announcement after the market closed. The financials were nothing short of spectacular and after hours trading had Apple only up a couple of dollars. That seemed surprising. Amazon doesn't even make a profit and its stock shot up $49 or 13% after its announcement last week. Go figure.
Dr. Duke's Blog
Ugliness Before The Fed Announcement
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- Written by Dr. Duke