February 19, 2014: Markets opened lower on Wednesday and after spending some time above the break-even line, all three major indexes sank following the release of the FOMC minutes. The energy sector posted a gain today on higher prices for both natural gas and crude oil. In the final minutes of trading the DJIA was down 0.56%, the S&P 500 was down 0.65%, and the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.82%.

Today’s big mover among the Dow 30 stocks was The Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA). Shares closed down 1.71% at $128.39 in a 52-week range of $74.75 to $144.57 shortly before the closing bell. The company announced that it had finalized a $3.8 billion order with Turkey’s SunExpress, but that didn’t seem to sway sellers. Boeing’s volume was about a third below the daily average of around 6 million shares traded.

Another DJIA stock that weighed on the index today was Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC). The stock closed down 1.05% at $24.50, in a 52-week range of $20.10 to $27.12. There was no news for on Intel today, but tech stocks were out of favor. Intel’s share volume was about 40% lower than the daily average of around 37 million shares traded.

Among actively traded Nasdaq shares, Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA) closed down 1.55% at $5.07 after posting a new 52-week high of $5.16 yesterday. The shares were up yesterday on news another gaming IPO; today’s action may have been some profit taking on this momentum stock. Trading volume was about equal to the daily average of some 35 million shares.

Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) dropped 3.66% today to close at $51.57 in a 52-week range of $38.75 to $55.28. Comcast plans to issue new debt soon to help pay for its proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC). Share volume was about double the daily average of around 15 million shares traded.

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