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Stocks plunged on Wednesday after the yield on 30-year Treasurys dropped to a new low and the spread between two- and 10-year Treasurys inverted for the first time since 2007. The inversion of the yield curve compounded concerns of an economic slowdown in the US, as the occurrence has preceded each of the last seven recessions. Disappointing economic data from Germany and China caused the rally in global bonds as investors shifted away from equities toward the relative-safety of long-term treasuries. Visit the Markets Insider homepage for more stories. US stocks plummeted on Wednesday after the spread between two- and 10-year Treasury...

Stocks rose to all-time highs on Friday as investors looked to end a record-setting week on a high note after testimony from the top Federal Reserve official signaled that a rate cut was coming. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 200 points. The S&P 500 traded 0.3% higher and was on pace to close above 3,000 for the first time ever. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.5% to a record high. Shares of Dow, Inc. led the Dow Industrials higher, rising nearly 4%. Intel and Caterpillar, meanwhile, climbed 2.3% and 2.4%, respectively. J.B. Hunt Transport Services was the best-performing stock in...

* Fed sees case building for rate cuts this year * Financials fall; Energy up most among S&P sectors * Carnival Corp slides on 2019 profit warning * Indexes up: Dow 0.68%, S&P 0.59%, Nasdaq 0.59% (Updates prices, adds comments) By Shreyashi Sanyal June 20 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 index touched an all-time high on Thursday, after the Federal Reserve indicated that it could cut interest rates as early as July to combat growing risks to global and domestic growth. The U.S. central bank left rates unchanged at the end of its two-day June policy meeting on Wednesday, but...

Stocks rose on Thursday as sentiment was boosted by strong earnings from Walmart and Cisco Systems while banks climbed on higher rates. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 214.66 points higher at 25,862.68, led by Walmart and Cisco. The S&P 500 gained 0.9% to close at 2,876.32 while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 1% to 7,898.05. The major indexes also closed higher for the third straight day. Walmart shares rose 1.4% after the retailer posted first-quarter earnings for fiscal 2020 that topped analyst expectations. The company said it is in a “good position ” to meet its goals for 2019 despite...

Recession talk flared up on Friday as the 10-year Treasury yield tumbled below that of the 3-month Treasury. While this signal has a spot-on track record in predicting a recession, there are reasons to take it with a grain of salt now. But another key economic indicator also flashed a worrying sign. The breakout of copper prices last month signaled that 2019 might be like 2016. That year saw the global economy rebound and the Dow Jones start a new leg to much greater heights. Yet that breakout failed on Friday, casting doubt on whether a new global upturn is...

U.S. stocks posted slight gains on Wednesday after a volatile session kicked off 2019. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 18 points higher after dropping nearly 400 points earlier in the day. The S&P 500 gained 0.1 percent while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.46 percent. At their lows of the day, the S&P 500 were both down more than 1 percent. “Finally, we’re starting to see this buy-the-dip mentality creep into the market,” said Phil Blancato, CEO of Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management. “It’s because of valuations and it’s because the underlying data has been pretty good so far, albeit a...

Microsoft is the most valuable publicly traded U.S. company, surpassing Apple for the title. Microsoft passed Apple in market cap again during intraday trading Friday, after jockeying for the top spot for most of the week. Microsoft surpassed Apple for seconds or minutes at a time all week, but Apple consistently beat out Microsoft in market valuation at market close. At Friday's close, Microsoft held an implied market valuation of $851.2 billion, based on an outstanding share count of 7,676,218,736 shares as of Oct. 19, according to the company's most recent SEC filing. Apple's market valuation, based on an outstanding...

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell over 300 points on Wednesday as tech names like Intel, Microsoft and Netflix were in the red, helping to also bring the Nasdaq Composite down over 100 points. The S&P 500 was also down just over 30 points as of 11:00 a.m. ET.

The Dow and S&P 500 recorded fresh all-time highs Thursday with investors waving off the tit-for-tat exchange of newly imposed trade tariffs placed on U.S. and Chinese goods and focusing on the latest, positive economic data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 251.22 points, or 0.95 percent, to 26,656.98 -- marking the Dow's 100th record close since the election of President Donald Trump and its first since January. The broader S&P 500 jumped 22.8 points, about 0.8 percent, to 2,930.75. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 78.19 points, or 0.98 percent, to 8,028.23. Ticker Security Last Change %Chg I:DJI DOW...

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was trading solidly lower early Tuesday, with shares of Nike Inc. NKE, +0.25% producing the stiffest headwind for the blue-chip benchmark. Nike's shares were down 2.6%, or $2.19, shaving about 15 points from the price-weighted Dow DJIA, -0.05% of which it is a component, after the sports-apparel giant unveiled a new 30th anniversary ad campaign that features Colin Kaepernick, the NFL quarterback who led player protests against racial injustice and police brutality during the national anthem. The move by Nike is being viewed as highly political and at odds with President Donald Trump's views. Most...

For the first time in 110 years, General Electric will not be a member of the elite Dow Jones Industrial Average. S&P Dow Jones Indices announced on Tuesday that the iconic maker of light bulbs and jet engines will be replaced in the 30-stock index by Walgreens Boots Alliance. GE (GE) was an original member of the Dow in 1896 and has been in it continuously since November 7, 1907. Being ousted from the Dow is the latest indignity for GE, which is dealing with a serious cash crisis caused by years of bad deals. GE has replaced its CEO,...

* Industrial giant General Electric is out of the Dow Jones industrial average and will be replaced by drugstore chain Walgreens Boots Alliance. * GE was one of the original components of the Dow Jones industrial average of 30 stocks in 1896.

The S&P 500 rose 0.9% to close at 2,772.35 as financial stocks gained 1.9%. The 10-year Treasury note yield benchmark rose to 2.98% following European yields after the European Central Bank talked about exiting its asset-purchasing program. JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley stock were all up more than 2% while Goldman Sachs also posted solid gain at 1.7%. The Dow Jones industrial average closed 346.41 points in the green at 25,146.39 as Boeing soared 3.2% contributing to most of the gains. The Dow Jones closed above 25,000 for the first time since mid-March. The 10-year Treasury...

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on March 23, 2018 in New York City. Stocks plunge more than 500 points 47 Mins Ago | 02:18 Stocks fell sharply on Friday as worries of a trade war brewing between the U.S. and China grew. Wall Street also digested disappointing employment data. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 740 points, with Boeing and Caterpillar as the biggest decliners in the index. The S&P 500 declined more than 2.5 percent, with industrials as the worst-performing sector. The Nasdaq composite dropped 2.7 percent. The sell-off accelerated in the...

Stocks in the U.S. are rising Thursday and major indexes in Europe are surging as global markets continue a rally that began late the previous day. Wall Street is getting more optimistic that a trade dispute between the U.S. and China, the two largest economies in the world, will be resolved without too much pain. Some of the biggest gains are going to technology companies, retailers and banks. The S&P 500 index climbed 18 points, or 0.7 percent, to 2,662 as of 12:45 p.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 237 points, or 1 percent, to 24,501. It...

Trade war fears and a presidential attack on Amazon are rocking Wall Street. The Dow dropped more than 700 points and the Nasdaq plunged 3% on Monday. All three major indexes are now in the red for the year. The sell-off on the first day of the second quarter came after President Trump once again attacked Amazon on Twitter. Amazon (AMZN), one of the biggest drivers of the 2017 market rally, tumbled 5%, wiping out more than $37 billion of its market value. Trump once again accused Amazon of taking advantage of the US Postal Service, and he suggested that...

Facebook’s mini-crash — the company’s stock is down over 13% in three days — is a reminder that even red-hot FAANG stocks can fall. Facebook FB, -0.08% took the stairs up and the elevator down. Did the Facebook shock just offer a glimpse into stock market future? Read on, and I’ll explain. Mean reversion Let’s not forget that Facebook’s stock is still up 865% since its 2012 low. For most of the past five years, Facebook has been trending higher in a well-defined trend channel. Let’s call this the “mean.” In July 2017, Facebook jumped above the trend channel and...

Whenever the stock market falls, people always try to explain why. The honest answer is “no one knows”. We don’t really know why the stock market rises and falls on any given day. There can be any multitude of unknown factors that lead to stock price increases and decreases. Maybe it snowed in New York? Maybe Donald Trump tweeted a lot from the toilet? Maybe a Credit Suisse VIX ETF blew up. Who knows? The needle can move in one direction for lots of reasons. The one thing we know for certain is that prices move because one side of...

Whatever it is that’s bringing the stock market down sharply, it’s not the bursting of a bubble. That’s because the recent market — overheated and overvalued as it has been — doesn’t even come close to past market bubbles. And the stock market’s plunge over the last week — more than 2,000 points on the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.07% on an intra-day basis — also doesn’t compare to the carnage of a bubble bursting. That at least is what I conclude from academic research into the precursors of past market bubbles. Consider first a study that was published...

"Dow Industrials plunge more than 1,100, the biggest one-day point drop ever..." was a headline after the market closed today.  Why lead with the point decline and not the percentage decline? A 4% drop isn't nearly as alarming, and you might be less inclined to click on the headline.On a day in October of 1987, the Dow dropped 23% -- about 6x as much as today's decline.  Almost a quarter of stock market value was temporarily wiped out in about eight hours.  That was a loss of 508 points.  If we had only experienced the percent loss at that time...