The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 97.33 points to finish at 12,780.95 Wednesday while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 lopped off 16 points and 7.27 points, respectively.
The declines came as investors mulled a pair of key economic reports and reacted to the minutes from the latest Fed meeting suggesting another round of bond buying may be in order to keep the economy’s recovery on track.
The Federal Reserve reported that U.S. industrial production was surprisingly flat in January. Economists were expecting an increase of 0.7% last month even though the Fed revised December’s increase to 1% from the originally reported 0.4% improvement.
Also, the homebuilder sentiment index rose to 29 in February, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
Here are some more details from Wednesday’s trading session:
Dow Jones Industrial Average:
- First drop in three trading days.
- Largest one-day points & percentage decline since December 28, 2011.
- Lowest closing value since February 02, 2012.
- An intraday high of 12899.47 occurred at 09:35:11 today, representing an increase of 21.19 points, or 0.16%.
- An intraday low of 12753.62 occurred at 15:26:38 today, representing a decrease of 124.66 points, or 0.97%.
- Five of the 30 component stocks rose, 25 fell.
- Today's five contributors to the Dow's movement and their point contribution: TRV (0.98), PG (0.53), HPQ (0.30), JNJ (0.30), IBM (0.23).
- Today's bottom five laggards: CAT (-14.53), UTX (-11.81), MCD (-7.11), CVX (-5.15), XOM (-4.16).
- Down 9.77% from its record close of 14164.53 on October 09, 2007.
- Up 95.22% from its 12-year closing low of 6547.05 on March 9, 2009.
- Up 4.01% from 52 weeks ago.
- Up 3.41% from its 2012 closing low of 12359.92 on January 06, 2012.
- Down 0.85% from its 52-week high of 12890.46 on February 09, 2012.
- Up 19.95% from its 52-week low of 10655.30 on October 03, 2011.
- Month-to-date: up 1.17%.
- Year-to-date: up 4.61%.
- DJIA traded in negative territory for 98 percent of the day.
Dow Jones U.S. Total Stock Market Index:
- Dow Jones U.S. Total Stock Market, 14014.96, down 73.09 points, or 0.52%, or approximately $89.9 billion in market capitalization.
- Down two consecutive trading days and three of the last four.
- Down 91.48 points, or 0.65%, over the two-day period.
- Largest two-day points & percentage decline since December 28, 2011.
- Down 10.99%, (approximately $2.9 trillion in market cap), from its record close of 15745.39 on October 09, 2007.
- Up 106.10% (approximately $8.3 trillion in market cap), from the 12-½ year closing low of 6800.08 on March 9, 2009.
- Up 0.30% from 52 weeks ago.
- Down 0.67% from its 2012 closing high of 14109.41 on February 09, 2012.
- Up 6.12% from its 2012 closing low of 13206.64 on January 04, 2012.
- Down 2.05% from its 52-week high of 14308.37 on April 29, 2011.
- Up 24.04% from its 52-week low of 11299.07 on October 03, 2011.
- Month-to-date: up 2.57%, or approximately $411 billion in market capitalization in market cap.
- Year-to-date; up 7.65%, or approximately $1.2 trillion in market capitalization in market cap.
Data courtesy of Dow Jones Indexes.
