The U.S. stock markets staggered to steep declines Thursday, finishing near their session lows in a sell-off that erased all of July's gains for the Dow 30 and the S&P 500. There was no one catalyst triggering the sell-off, with investors giving in to negative sentiment over ongoing geo-political conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, the Argentine credit situation, as well as a batch of largely disappointing company earnings and mixed economic data.
It was the first monthly decline for the S&P 500 since January. All 10 sectors in the broad market gauge declined at least 1.7% as a group, with the steepest fall for energy stocks accompanying a sharp fall for front-month crude-oil futures.
Economic data was somewhat downbeat. The Labor Department reported a larger-than-expected rise of 23,000 to 302,000 in first-time jobless claims while the Chicago purchasing managers index falling to a 52.6 reading, well under the 63.2 reading Wall Street was expecting. The government Friday will issue its monthly non-farm payrolls report for July.
Commodities were mixed. Crude Oil for September delivery plunged Thursday, settling $2.10 lower at $98.17 per barrel while September Natural Gas rose 6 cents to finish at $3.84 per 1 million BTU. December Gold declined $13.80 to $1,283.10 per ounce while September Silver slid 18 cents to $20.41 per ounce. September Copper fell 1 cent to $3.23 per pound.
Here's where the U.S. markets stood at the end-of-day
- Dow Jones Industrial Average down 317.06 (-1.88%) to 16,563.30
- S&P 500 down 39.40 (-2.00%) to 1,930.67
- NASDAQ Composite Index down 93.13 (-2.09%) to 4,369.77
GLOBAL SENTIMENT
- Hang Seng Index up 0.10%
- Shanghai Composite Index up 0.93%
- FTSE 100 Index down 0.64%
UPSIDE MOVERS
- (+) EVRY, Receives $20 mln equity investment by Monomoy Capital Partners in return for Series A senior redeemable preferred stock with $21.2 mln mln liquidation preference and warrants to buy 4.43 mln shares of common stock.
- (+) AAVL, Prices an upsized initial public offering of 6 million shares of its common stock at $17 apiece, the top of a recently increased range. Prior to pricing, the firm added an extra 600,000 shares to the deal, generating $102 mln in gross proceeds.
- (+) JRN, Climbs to seven-year high after agreeing to merge with E.W. Scripps (SSP), with the combined companies planning to keep their broadcast properties while spinning off their newspaper companies in a separate firm. SSP hit its best price since 1988.
DOWNSIDE MOVERS
- (-) EHTH, Q2 revenue climbs 7% to $42.6 mln, trailing consensus by $4.7 mln. Adjusted net income of $0.22 per share beats by $0.04. Projected FY14 EPS and revenue lags Street view by at least $0.01 and $15.5 mln, respectively.
- (-) EDAP, FDA advisory panel votes 3-to-5 with one abstention against the safety and 0-to-9 for the efficacy of its Ablatherm-HIFU prostate cancer drug candidate. Vote on the risk-benefit ratio was 0-to-8 against with one abstention.
- (-) CBMG, Shutters its consulting business segment, saying the unit "no longer fits into (the company's) long-term strategy and vision." The division is expected to classified as discontinued operation as of June 30, with the company taking $840,000 Q2 pre-tax charge.
After Hours Stock News From Midnight Trader.
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