USA stocks struggled through a turbulent afternoon trading day Tuesday and eked out small gains, led by utility and consumer stocks.
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In other markets, gold futures on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange rose as USA equities plummeted on a sharp decline in oil prices.
At 3:37 p.m.in NY, the Dow Jones Industrial (INDEXDJX:.DJI) dropped 1% to 15,848.85, the S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX) slid 0.5% to 1,871.07, while (INDEXNASDAQ:.IXIC) rose 0.5% to 4,498.34. In the 11 trading sessions since New Year’s, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has fallen an average of 1.3 percent from its intraday high, more than double the decline last year. The Fund forecast that the world economy would grow at 3.4 percent in 2016 and 3.6 percent in 2017, both years down 0.2 percentage point from the previous estimates made last October.
Full-year growth same in at 6.9 percent, down from 2014’s 7.3 percent, and the slowest pace of economic expansion since 1990.
The Nasdaq has retreated 16.36 points, or 0.4 percent.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 550 points before a surge in buying recovered over half of those losses, ending in a 1.56 percent loss.
Germany’s DAX, France’s CAC.FCHI and Britain’s FTSE were all down around 3 percent and also set for their biggest fall of the year so far. The S&P 500 opened 20 points, or 1.1%, higher at 1,900.
Before Thursday’s gains, S&P Dow Jones Indices’ Howard Silverblatt provided three facts that put the terrible run in context.
Among the heavy hitters, investment bank Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) outperformed the market, shedding only 1.5% at US$154.71, despite seeing quarterly profits fall, partly as a result of stumping up the largest regulatory penalty in its history. It rose almost 4% in above-average volume after reporting Q4 earnings of $2.01 a share, a 26% increase from a year earlier. The euro was down 0.1% against the dollar at $1.0873 after data confirmed the eurozone’s annual rate of inflation was just 0.2% in December, well below the European Central Bank’s medium-term inflation target of around 2%.
Renewed concerns over China’s slowing economy and the steep drop in oil prices have been blamed for the market whiplash.
Losses in the volatile Shanghai Composite Index were comparatively muted, as the index lost 1%.
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More than 1,000 NYSE-listed stocks hit 52-week lows in the first 20 minutes of trading, the most since August 24, Reuters reported.
