October 29, 2018: Markets opened higher Monday but by mid-afternoon all the early gains had evaporated and all three major indexes were trading in the red. The 12-month inflation personal consumption expenditure index came in at 2% for September, down 0.2 percentage points compared to August. Earnings season has not been an overwhelming success so far and investors may still be paying extra attention to slowing global economic expansion. Technology, energy, and consumer discretionary stocks were the day’s big losers
WTI crude oil for December delivery settled at $67.04 a barrel, down 0.8% for the day. December gold dropped about 0.7% to settle at $1,227.60. Equities were heading for a lower close about 10 minutes before the bell as the Dow traded down 1.94% for the day, the S&P 500 traded down 1.58%, and the Nasdaq Composite traded down 2.91%.
Bitcoin futures (XBTX8) for November delivery traded at $6,245, down 2.4% for the day on the Cboe after opening at $6,355 this morning. The trading range today was $6,1850 to $6,430.
The Dow stock posting the largest daily percentage loss ahead of the close Monday was The Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) which traded down 8.14% at $330.04. The stock’s 52-week range is $255.33 to $394.28. Volume was about 65% above the daily average of around 3.4 million. A Boeing 737 MAX aircraft crashed in Indonesia early Monday, killing all 189 people on board.
International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) traded down 4.50% at $119.17 in a 52-week range of $118.30 to $171.13 and the low was set today. Volume was more than triple the daily average of around 5 million shares. Big Blue’s $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat did not go down well with investors.
Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) traded down 4.26% at $102.40. The stock’s 52-week range is $80.70 to $116.18. Volume was about 50% above the daily average of around 27.4 million shares.
Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) traded down 3.52% at $132.89. The 52-week range on the stock is $106.60 to $151.56. Volume was about 10% higher than the daily average of around 3.1 million.
Of the Dow stocks, 8 were set to close higher Monday and 22 were on track to close lower.
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