Why the Dow Fell Today
All three major indexes fell a bit today. Here's where we stand:
Gain (Loss) | % Change | Ending Value | |
|---|---|---|---|
Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEX: ^DJI) | (68.06) | (0.51%) | 13,203.58 |
Nasdaq (INDEX: ^IXIC) | (8.95) | (0.29%) | 3,067.26 |
S&P 500 (INDEX: ^GSPC) | (4.96) | (0.35%) | 1,413.17 |
There wasn't any earth-shattering macroeconomic information that can be blamed for the downtick in markets. Instead, company news drove market talk today.
Of the 30 Dow stocks, nine were up on the day, and 21 were down. But none were up or down even 2%. Here's the rundown of the news of note beyond the Dow:
Warren Buffett scares municipal bond investors --Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYS: BRK.B) ended a five-year-old credit default swap arrangement in which it insured $8.25 billion of municipal bonds. While this can't be seen as good news for municipal bond investors, it may not be bad news either. We don't know the exact terms, and we can only speculate on his rationale. For more, check out Yahoo's coverage.
A noteworthy Facebook seller -- Early investor and director Peter Thiel sold the bulk of his remaining position in Facebook, as a lock-up period expired last week. Between the shares he sold at IPO and these shares, we're talking about the sale of about $1 billion worth of stock. Fellow Fool Alex Dumortier thinks this is bad news for Facebook shareholders.
Urban Outfitters (NAS: URBN) up 18% today --The trendy retailer beat expectations on both the top and bottom lines.
More Best Buy bad news - Best Buy reported some grim earnings today, with both sales and same-store sales dropping about 3%, and profit falling 90%. Shares were off as much as 11% but ended down only 1.4%.
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The article Why the Dow Fell Today originally appeared on Fool.com.
Fool contributorAnand Chokkaveluowns shares of Best Buy and Berkshire Hathaway. The Motley Fool owns shares of Best Buy, Facebook, and Berkshire Hathaway.Motley Fool newsletter serviceshave recommended buying shares of Facebook and Berkshire Hathaway. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe thatconsidering a diverse range of insightsmakes us better investors. Try any of our Foolish newsletter servicesfree for 30 days.
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