U.S. market indexes were lower on Wednesday.
For the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 19,792.53 for a loss of 118.68 points or 0.60%. The Standard & Poor's 500 closed at 2,253.28 for a loss of 18.44 points or 0.81%. The Nasdaq Composite closed at 5,436.67 for a loss of 27.16 points or 0.50%. The VIX Volatility Index was higher for the day at 13.19 for a gain of 0.47 points or 3.69%.
Wednesday’s market movers
The Federal Open Market Committee’s December meeting was a leading factor for market trading Wednesday. The Fed announced it would be raising its target federal funds rate to 0.50% to 0.75%.
Other factors affecting the U.S. market Wednesday included the following:
- The MBA Mortgage Applications report showed a decrease of 4% in mortgage applications and also in mortgage refinancings.
- The Producer Price Index reported a 1.3% annual increase.
- Retail sales were 0.1% higher for the month of November.
- Industrial production was down 0.4% in November.
- Business inventories were down 0.2% in October.
- The EIA Petroleum Status report showed a decrease in oil inventories of 2.6 million barrels.
In the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the following stocks led gains and losses:
Losses
- Caterpillar (CAT, Financial) -2.37%.
- ExxonMobil (XOM, Financial) -2.16%.
- Boeing (BA, Financial) -1.40%.
- DuPont (DD, Financial) -1.39%.
Gains
- Goldman Sachs (GS, Financial) 0.58%.
- American Express (AXP, Financial) 0.31%.
- Walt Disney (DIS, Financial) 0.19%.
- IBM (IBM, Financial) 0.13%.
All sectors in the S&P 500 were lower. Utilities and energy led losses. Technology stocks saw minimal decreases Wednesday with the S&P 500 technology sector down 0.35%.
Small-cap stocks
In small-caps, the Russell 2000 Index closed at 1,356.02 for a loss of 17.51 points or 1.27%. The S&P 600 Small-Cap Index closed at 838.49 for a loss of 10.44 points or 1.23%. The Dow Jones Small-Cap Growth TSM Index closed at 7,987.57 for a loss of 96.80 points or 1.20%. The Dow Jones Small-Cap Value TSM Index closed at 9,623.29 for a loss of 149.79 points or 1.53%.
Other notable indexes
Other notable index closes included the S&P 400 Mid-Cap Index at 1,664.33 for a loss of 21.72 points or 1.29%; the S&P 100 Index at 997.75 for a loss of 6.64 points or 0.66%; the Russell 3000 Index at 1,339.33 for a loss of 11.83 points or 0.88%; the Russell 1000 Index at 1,249.45 for a loss of 10.60 points or 0.84%; and the Dow Jones U.S. Select Dividend Index at 634.75 for a loss of 9.04 points or 1.40%.
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