A possible bank failure in Portugal resulted in one of the worst days on Wall Street in nearly three months as investors fled riskier assets and poured into the relative safety of U.S. government bonds and precious metals. Although stocks recovered off their worst levels of the day, all three major indices surrendered Wednesday's gain led by weakness in financial and consumer stocks.
The feeding frenzy in Europe triggered by a missed bond payment at Portugal's Banco Espirito Santo (LISBON:BES) and downbeat economic data in Europe and China permeated early U.S. trading as the Dow Industrials went into a freefall, shedding 180 points at the open despite a better-than-expected read on weekly initial jobless claims. But as the dust settled, bargain-hunters emerged allowing for a consistent grind off the lows.
The data for Thursday was supportive of the equity market, but could not put a dent in negative sentiment. Initial jobless claims fell 11,000 for the week ended July 5 to a near 7-year low of 304,000, beating estimates of 315,000.
Wholesale inventories rose 0.5% and sales were up 0.7% in May, leaving the inventory-to-sales ratio unchanged for the third straight month at 1.18 months.
Here's Where The Markets Stood At The Close
US MARKETS
- Dow Jones Industrial Index was down 0.42% at 16,915
- S&P 500 was down 0.41% at 1,964
- NASDAQ Composite Index was down 0.52% at 4,396
GLOBAL SENTIMENT
- FTSE 100 was down 0.68%
- Nikkei 225 was down 0.56%
- Hang Seng Index was up 0.27%
- Shanghai Composite Index was down 0.01%
UPSIDE MOVERS
- (+) DGLY (+127.35%) Gets VuLink patent, begins shipping new product
- (+) TRW (+8.22%) Possible acquisition by Germany's ZF Friedrichshafen
- (+) CRAY (+15.69%) Wins $174 mln supercomputer contract from National Nuclear Security Administration
- (+) UAL (+12.73%) Reported flat June 2013 consolidated traffic but improved capacity
DOWNSIDE MOVERS
- (-) LL (-21.54%) Steep downward revisions to Q2 and full year guidance
- (-) PBPB (-25.12%) Warned its Q2 revenue will trail analyst forecasts by nearly 4% and lowered FY14 earnings outlook
- (-) KOS (-6.40%) Priced a secondary offering of 17 mln at a 6.6% discount to Wednesday's close
- (-) HELI (-11.48%) Missed analyst Q2 earnings estimates
After Hours Stock News From Midnight Trader.
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