One day after Ben Bernanke signaled that the Federal Reserve might start to taper its bond-buying program in mid-2014 and a late-afternoon selloff ensued, the bleeding continued with 2% losses across each of America’s major indices, effectively erasing most of the gains of May and June.
The S&P 500 took the day’s biggest beating, falling 2.5% to close at 1588.18, with all 10 sectors in the red. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.34% to close at 14758.32, with every component in the red by more than 1%. The Nasdaq suffered a loss of 2.28%, closing at 3364.64.
Big Tech led the Dow lower, with Intel (INTC, -3.26%), Microsoft (MSFT, -3.18%) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ, -2.8%) all among the index’s loss leaders. Housing stocks ignored some positive news on existing home sales, with Pultegroup (PHM, -9.1%), Lennar (LEN, -7.7%), M/I Homes (MHO, -7.7%), and KB Home (KBH, -6.6%) all well in the red by Thursday’s end.
The market also punished blue chips like Coca-Cola (KO, -3.2%), Procter & Gamble (PG, -3%) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, -2.6%).
Gold prices weren’t immune, either, with spot gold falling 6% and the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) declining by more than 5%. Coming along for the ride were miners including Yamana Gold (AUY, -9.9%) and Newmont Mining (NEM, -6.7%).
Even good news was met with selling disdain. Rite-Aid (RAD) — which managed to turn a profit in the first quarter on lower revenue compared to last year — was pummeled, losing over 7% on the day.
Three Up
- Clearwire (CLWR): Up 7.3% (35 cents) to $5.05.
- GameStop (GME): Up 6.3% ($2.41) to $40.94.
- T-Mobile US (TMUS): Up 3.2% (70 cents) to $22.93.
Three Down
- Ebix (EBIX): Down 44.2% ($8.72) to $11.00. (Read more here)
- Navistar (NAV): down 11.2% ($3.35) to $26.57.
- Barrick Gold (ABX): Down 7.8% ($1.41) to $16.60.
Marc Bastow is an Assistant Editor at InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing, he was long MSFT and JNJ.
