MarketView for March 18

MarketView for Monday, March 18
 

 

 

MarketView

 

Events defining the day's trading activity on Wall Street

 

Lauren Rudd

 

Monday, March 18, 2013

 

 

Dow Jones Industrial Average

14,452.06

q

-62.05

-0.43%

Dow Jones Transportation Average

6,251.90

q

-20.77

-0.33%

Dow Jones Utilities Average

492.22

q

-2.96

-0.60%

NASDAQ Composite

3,237.59

q

-11.48

-0.35%

S&P 500

1,552.10

q

-8.60

-0.55%

 

 

Summary

 

Stocks fell on Monday after a plan to tax bank accounts in Cyprus to help pay for the country's bailout stoked worries that it could threaten the stability of financial institutions in the euro zone.

 

The move pushed the S&P 500 farther from its 2007 record closing high of 1,565 after the index came within striking distance last week. Financial stocks led the day's decline, following a steep slide in European bank shares. JPMorgan Chase was down one percent to $49.51.

 

Cypriot ministers were trying to revise a plan to seize money from bank deposits before a parliamentary vote on Tuesday that will secure the island's financial rescue or could lead to its default.

 

European officials have said the measure is a one-off for a country that accounts for just 0.2 percent of European output. The fear is that savers in larger European countries will become nervous and start withdrawing funds, although there was no immediate sign of that on Monday.

 

Earlier in the day, the Dow had lost more than 100 points to tumble to an intraday low of 14,404. The Dow, which broke through its 2007 record highs on March 5, is still up about 10.3 percent for the year. The S&P 500 is up 8.8 percent for the year. The benchmark index is on track to post its best quarter in a year.

 

The CBOE Volatility Index VIX, Wall Street's favorite barometer of fear, chalked up a gain of 18.2 percent to 13.36. Last week, the VIX hit a six-year low.

 

Among decliners, Schlumberger fell 3.9 percent to $76.34 after the company indicated that fewer rigs than predicted were going back to work in its North American operations. Boeing fell 1.4 percent to $85.18. Boeing is putting the 787 Dreamliner through tough tests that it had helped develop, but never used on the jet.

 

Shares of Charter Communications rose 8.8 percent to $98.04 after the Wall Street Journal said Liberty Media is close to buying a 25 percent stake in the cable operator for about $2.5 billion.

Liberty shares rose 0.3 percent to $110.66.

 

After the bell, shares of Electronic Arts chalked up a gain of 2.6 percent to $19.20 after stating that its chief executive has resigned. The shares closed at $18.71.

 

Approximately 5.8 billion shares changed hands on the three major equity exchanges, as compared with the 2012 average daily closing volume of about 6.45 billion shares.