Wall Street opens with a negative note amid Turkey crisis
InvestingOnline.com
15/08/2018, 15:44The United States stocks market opened Wednesday with big loses as investors are worried about the resolution of the crisis in Turkey. Upbeat economic data in the US didn’t help the sentiment, and the European fears overshadowed it.
Turkey is facing a liquidity problem and concerns over a possible contagion into European banks are pressuring markets. Commodities, currencies and European stocks are down. Turkish regulator said Wednesday it was limiting banks’ currency swap transactions in an attempt to fight back short selling against the Lira.
On America, retail sales in the United States rose 0.5% in July, above the 0.1% increase expected by market and more than the 0.2% increase in June. Retail sales ex-autos jumped 0.6% in July, the double of the 0.3% expected and an acceleration from the 0.2% in June.
SP 500 daily chart August 15
Back to stocks, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is falling 0.91% or 231.16 points to trade at 25,068.76. The DJIA is 2.02% down in the last five days.
The S&P 500 is down 27.81 points or 0.98% to its current value of 2,812.15. The S&P is 1.55% down in the last five days. The NASDAQ Composite is losing 111.36 points or 1.41% to 7,759.53. The Nasdaq is sharply lower today and it is 1.52% down on the last five trading sessions.
For industries, the majority of sectors are down so far today, except Utilities that is gaining 0.47% and real estate that is flat on the day. Among the big losers, the energy sector is the worse with a 1.56% drop, followed by materials with a decline of 1.33% and information technology with a 0.85% drop.
