And individual energy stocks, such as Chesapeake Energy, Consol Energy, and Southwestern Energy are among the index’s biggest losers, plunging around 75% this year.
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Iraqi forces liberate Ramadi from IS after weeklong battle
Secretary of State John Kerry congratulated Iraqi forces for “displaying tremendous perseverance and courage”. Soldiers were shown on state television on Monday publicly slaughtering a sheep in an act of celebration.
For the year, the S&P 500 held onto modest 0.2 percent gain, while Nasdaq was up about 7 percent. The Nasdaq Composite lost 1.15 percent to 5,007.41. Markets in Japan and South Korea were closed for the New Year holiday.
On Day 1, Odds Fail to Cut Delhi Smog
The main reason to introduce this scheme is to bring the Indian capital city’s hazardous level of pollution under control. As per rough estimates, around 50,000 trucks enter Delhi every day, contributing to pollution levels in the city.
The S&P 500 is up 4.46 points for the year through Wednesday, giving it an 0.2% gain with one session to go.
Some begin picking up pieces in Missouri after flooding
City leaders were weighing whether it was safe for them to return as the water had already dropped almost a foot since its crest. Surging Midwestern rivers forced hundreds of evacuations, threatened dozens of levees and brought transportation by…
The S&P energy sector, on the other hand, lost almost 24 percent, followed by a near 10 percent loss in materials.
Analysts said decline in Thursday’s session should be taken with a grain of salt due to light trading volume and the incentive to sell stocks at the end of the year to book losses for tax purposes.
“As we close out of the year, it’s been a tale of two tapes, with narrow leadership holding up the major indices, while the vast majority of the market continues to underperform”, said Adam Sarhan, chief executive of Sarhan Capital in NY.
The rally in energy stocks last week came as crude rebounded more than 9 percent from a six-year low, fueling speculation the commodity’s plunge had ended.
The Nasdaq is up 6.7 percent, while the Dow is on track to end 2015 with a loss of 1.4 percent.
“I think if flat’s the new up, 2015 for equities was a pretty exemplary year”, said Ryan Larson, head of equity trading, U.S., at RBC Global Asset Management (U.S.). “A very unrewarding year”.
Crude oil prices were set for their second year of steep losses suffering under an unprecedented global glut that may take another year to clear. On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped another 1% to 17425.03.
GAINERS & LOSERS: Mosaic declined the most among companies in the S&P 500, shedding 67 cents, or 2.4 percent, to $27.68.
Fairchild Semiconductor rose 3.7 percent after it received a revised offer from the Party G Group, with new terms on termination fees if the takeover fails to secure regulatory approvals. Additionally, the stock has plummeted -12.66% since the beginning of 2015. The measure rose as much as 3.5 per cent in 2015, and fell 9.3 per cent at its low in August amid its first correction in four years, sparked by worries about weakness in China. On Wednesday, Germany’s DAX fell 1.1 percent and the CAC-40 lost 0.5 percent. Major US indexes declined on Thursday, the last day of the year, putting a main market benchmark slightly in the red for 2015. Sydney’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.2 percent to 5,308.70 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.1 percent to 21,870.01.
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METALS: Precious and industrial metals prices ended mixed.
