June 19, 2018: Markets opened lower for a third straight day Tuesday following comments from the President late Monday that he wants to identify another $200 billion worth of Chinese imports on which to charge a 10% tariff. Equity markets don’t much care for tariffs and they showed it, with the Dow blue chips trading down more than 400 points early in the morning. The industrials sector took the biggest hit while the defensive stocks did their best to mitigate losses.
WTI crude oil for July delivery settled at $65.07 a barrel, down about 1.2% for the day. August gold dropped about 0.1% on the day to settle at $1,278.60. Equities were headed for a lower close about 10 minutes before the bell as the Dow traded down 1.25% for the day, the S&P 500 traded down 0.48%, and the Nasdaq Composite traded down 0.38%.
Bitcoin futures (XBTN8) for July delivery traded at $6,750, up about 0.2% on the CBOE after opening at $6,730 this morning. The trading range today was $6,665 to $6,850.
The Dow stock posting the largest daily percentage loss ahead of the close Tuesday was The Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) which traded down 4.14% at $340.06. The stock’s 52-range on the stock is $196.45 to $374.48. Volume of about 5.7 million was around 30% higher than the daily average. The company’s stock had no specific news, but tariff fears hit industrials like Boeing really hard.
Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) traded down 3.77% at $143.07. The stock’s 52-week range is $102.30 to $173.24. Volume was about 45% below the daily average of around 9.5 million shares. Another industrial biggie hit by tariff threats.
3M Company (NYSE: MMM) traded down 2.50% at $199.06. The stock’s 52-week range is $191.44 to $259.77. Volume was about 20% below the daily average of around 2.9 million. A third industrial company that had no specific news but got whacked anyway.
DowDuPont Inc. (NYSE: DWDP) traded down 2.42% at $66.15 in a 52-week range of $61.27 to $77.08. Volume was about 15% below the daily average of around 9 million shares. Another industrial giant that had no specific news Tuesday.
Of the Dow stocks, 8 are on track to close higher Tuesday and 22 are set to close lower.
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