Dow Drops 166 Points - InvestingChannel

Dow Drops 166 Points



Stocks took a hit on Friday as investors remain cautious due to a resurgent Covid virus and a Federal Reserve meeting scheduled for next week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 166.44 points or 0.5% to close at 34,584.88, dragged down by a nearly 2.9% drop in Dow Inc. The S&P 500 shed 0.9% to 4,432.99 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.9% to close at 15,043.97.

For the month, stocks are also in the red. The Dow is down 2.2% in September. The S&P 500 is off by 2% this month but still just 2.5% from its all-time high. The Nasdaq has lost 1.4% this month.

The Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) two-day policy meeting next week should provide some clarity on the outlook for tapering and interest rates.

Shares of Invesco jumped 5.5% after the Wall Street Journal reported the money manager is in talks to combine with State Street’s asset-management business. Invesco manages about $1.5 trillion.

Technology stocks were mostly negative, with social media giant Facebook dropping 2.2%. Apple and Microsoft each lost 1.8%.

hares of Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. were down 0.5% after BMO Capital Markets analyst Gerrick Johnson downgraded the stock to market perform from outperform.

The 10-year Treasury note yielded 1.37%, up 4 basis points. It earlier reached a two-month high of 1.39%.

The November crude contract was down 4 cents at US$72.57 per barrel.

Spot gold was down 0.1% at $1,751.89 per ounce.