The U.K. exit vote continued to cause uncertainty in stock market trading and stocks were lower Wednesday ahead of Thursday's vote.
For the day the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 17,780.83 for a loss of 48.90 points or 0.27%. The Standard & Poor's 500 was also down, closing at 2,085.45 for a loss of 3.45 points or 0.17%. The Nasdaq Composite closed lower at 4,833.32 for a loss of 10.44 points or 0.22%. The VIX Volatility Index was higher for the day at 20.93 with a gain of 2.45 points or 13.26%.
In the Dow Jones Industrial Average, stocks leading losses included the following:
- McDonald's (MCD, Financial) -1.64%.
- Visa (V, Financial) -1.03%.
- Chevron (CVX, Financial) -0.92%.
- Pfizer (PFE, Financial) -0.81%.
- Travelers (TRV, Financial) -0.79%.
- IBM (IBM, Financial) -0.73%.
The housing market continued to report gains with some key indicators on Wednesday. The Mortgage Bankers Association reported a 2.9% increase in mortgage applications for the week. The FHFA House Price Index was higher by 0.2% for the month. However, the Index was below consensus of 0.6%. Existing home sales were also nearly at consensus with a reported sales rate of 5.530 million SAAR. For the month existing-home sales were 1.8% higher.
The focus of the day continued to remain on Janet Yellen, who gave a second speech before the House Financial Services Committee in Washington. Her speech was similar to Tuesday’s tone before the Senate Banking Committee. Yellen reported that the Fed would continue to focus on key factors influencing a rate increase including the labor market and inflation. These factors continue to drive the Fed’s dual mandate for promoting maximum employment and price stability which the Fed chairman reported as the continued main concerns for the Federal Open Market Committee.
In a report Wednesday, CNBC gave highlights from Yellen’s speech.
Disclosure: I do not own any shares of any stocks included in this article.
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