The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 26,583.42 on Thursday with a loss of 280.85 points or -1.05%. The S&P 500 closed at 2,953.56 for a loss of 26.82 points or -0.90%. The Nasdaq Composite closed at 8,111.12 for a loss of 64.30 points or -0.79%. The VIX Volatility Index was higher at 17.61 for a gain of 1.49 points or 9.24%.
Thursday’s market movers
U.S. indexes closed lower for a fourth consecutive day. After several announcements throughout the week, investors also received news that China trade talks were breaking down, with the U.S. reporting Thursday it would be imposing a 10% tariff on an additional $300 billion worth of Chinese goods starting on Sept. 1. The deadline still leaves room for negotiations, which are expected to continue. In the S&P 500, financial, energy, industrials and consumer discretionary stocks led losses.
In other news, investors continued to assess affects from the Federal Reserve’s July policy meeting announcement Wednesday, the Senate passed a two-year spending bill ready for the president to sign and second-quarter earnings continued.
Earnings headlines for the day included the following:
- Verizon Communications (VZ, Financial): Missed revenue estimates. Beat earnings per share estimates by 3 cents.
- DuPont (DD, Financial): Missed revenue estimates. Beat earnings estimates by 15 cents.
- Square (SQ, Financial): Beat revenue estimates. Earnings beat estimates by 5 cents.
Economic reports affecting market trading included the following:
- Jobless claims increased to 215,000 from 207,000.
- The Markit Manufacturing PMI decreased to 50.4 in July from 50.6.
- Construction spending decreased 1.3% in June following a decrease of 0.5%.
- The ISM Manufacturing PMI decreased to 51.2 in July from 51.7.
- The Treasury held auctions for four-week bills at a rate of 2.080% and eight-week bills at a rate of 2.100%.
- Freddie Mac’s weekly mortgage survey showed the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage average at 3.75%, unchanged from last week. The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.20%, increasing from 3.18%.
In the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the following stocks led losses:
- Goldman Sachs (GS, Financial) -4.13%
- Caterpillar (CAT, Financial) -3.75%
- Nike (NKE, Financial) -3.41%
- Dow (DOW, Financial) -3.39%
- JPMorgan (JPM, Financial) -2.93%
Small-cap stocks
In small caps, the Russell 2000 closed at 1,550.76 for a loss of 23.84 points or -1.51%. The S&P 600 closed at 948.24 for a loss of 15.16 points or -1.57%. The Dow Jones U.S. Small-Cap Growth Index closed at 10,014.61 for a loss of 145.90 points or -1.44%. The Dow Jones U.S. Small-Cap Value Index closed at 9,390.10 for a loss of 211.08 points or -2.20%.
Other notable indexes
Other notable index closes included the S&P 400 Mid-Cap Index at 1,933.48 for a loss of 33.24 points or -1.69%; the S&P 100 at 1,305.66 for a loss of 11.43 points or -0.87%; the Nasdaq 100 at 7,801.15 for a loss of 47.63 points or -0.61%; the Russell 3000 at 1,737.49 for a loss of 17.16 points or -0.98%; the Russell 1000 at 1,636.87 for a loss of 15.53 points or -0.94%; the Wilshire 5000 at 30,285.62 for a loss of 310.99 points or -1.02%; and the Dow Jones U.S. Select Dividend Index at 708.27 for a loss of 7.92 points or -1.11%.
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