Stock Market News For Apr 25, 2018

Markets ended in negative territory on Tuesday after the 10-year Treasury yield briefly hit the psychological 3% mark for the first time since January 2014. The Dow eventually took a beating after industry bellwether Caterpillar said economic growth might decelerate later in the year, while the Nasdaq was hit by a sharp decline in the FAANG stocks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) fell 1.7%, to close at 24,024.13. The S&P 500 declined 1.3% to close at 2,634.56. The Nasdaq Composite Index ended the day at 7007.35, slumping 1.7%. A total of 7.22 billion shares were traded on Tuesday, higher than the last 20-session average of 6.80 billion shares. Decliners outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by a 1.94-to-1 ratio. On Nasdaq, a 1.71-to-1 ratio favored declining issues.

How did the Benchmark Perform?

The Dow shed 424.56 points, making it the fifth straight day of losses for the index since Mar 2017. However, the 30-stock index rose as much as 131 points shortly after trading began only to witness huge selloffs in the later part of the day.

The S&P 500 lost 35.73 points. Eight of the 11 major sectors ended in the red, led by Industrial Select Sector SPDR (XLI), which declined 2.8%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq shed 121.25 points with tech stocks taking a hit once again. Shares of Facebook FB and Netflix NFLX declined 3.7% each, while Amazon AMZN and Alphabet GOOGL lost 3.8%, 4.8%, respectively. Amazon sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Industrials and Tech Stocks Suffer

The earnings season so far has been good with companies living up to the expectations of investors. However, despite strong earnings markets ended in the red on Tuesday with industrials and tech stocks suffering once again.

Caterpillar CAT came up with it quarterly numbers that beat expectations on both earnings and revenues, which saw the stock gain initially. However, the industry bellwether ended the day in red with its shares declining 6.2% after the company’s CEO Bradley Halverson hinted during a conference call that economic growth might slow later in the year. Halverson gave a less-than-optimistic outlook for the company and that the first quarter would be “the high watermark for the year”. This dented investor confidence leading to huge selloffs.

Moreover, tech stocks, which have been suffering for a while now, continued their poor show. Internet powerhouse, Alphabet, was one of the worst performers. Despite beating both earnings and revenue estimates, the company’s shares plummeted as rising expenses and shrinking margins weighed on the company’s better-than-expected profits. This led to losses for other tech stocks.

10-Year Treasury Hits 3%  

Investors panicked over rising interest rates, as 10-year Treasury yield briefly touched the psychological mark of 3% a four-year high. This is the first time since Jan 2014 that the 10-year Treasury yield has touched the 3% level. This further dented investors’ confidence, leading to huge selloffs, as expectations of rising inflation grew, which could lead the Fed to tighten the monetary policy at a swifter pace.

Stocks That Made Headlines

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Ryder System, Inc. (R) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Facebook, Inc. (FB) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
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