"Rough Week for the US stock markets: S&P 500 down 2.7% at 1925.15. DJIA down 2.8% at 16493.37. Nasdaq Comp down 2.2% at 4352.64. Treasury yields mixed; 10-year rose to 2.505%. Nymex crude oil down 4.1% at $97.88. Gold down 0.7% at $1,293.60/ounce.
For the Dow, it was worst week since late January, and the second consecutive down week, and third of the last four. The index is now in the red for the year. That’s nothing compared to the 4.5% drop in Germany’s DAX, which saw its worst one-week percentage decline since June 2012. Junk bonds, meanwhile, sold off hard and are back where they were in October amid heavy outflows.
Whether all that signals a trend change or a pause is the question.
One thing is sure, though: It was a volatile week for the markets, and that adjective has not been used in quite a while. Last week’s flood of economic reports has investors revisiting their thinking about the time frames around Fed policy, and what that will mean for a market that has gone in largely only one direction for three years. Beyond the Fed and economy, there are an awful lot of things for investors to keep up with: earnings, Argentina, Espirito Santo, Gaza, Syria, Iraq, Russia, Ukraine, and Europe to say nothing of China’s banks and Japan’s Abenomics experiment".
Source: WSJ
