Richard Drew/Associated Press
Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Friday, wrapping up the month.
Given the wild trading of late, it was a calm close to the month.
After flitting between tiny gains and losses most of Friday, the stock market closed mostly lower, a peaceful end to the most volatile month in nearly two years.
"It's a dull Friday," said Gary Flam, a stock manager at Bel Air Investment Advisors. A bull market, he added, is "rarely a straight march up."
The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index ended its bumpy ride in June down 1.5 percent, the first monthly loss since October. The index still had its best first half of a year since 1998.
Investors seemed unsure how to react to recent statements by Federal Reserve officials about when the central bank might end its support for the economy.
Mixed economic news on Friday added to investor uncertainty after big stock gains. An index of consumer confidence was up, but a gauge of business activity in the Chicago area plunged.
"Investors don't know what to make of the news," said John Toohey, vice president for stock investments at USAA Investment Management. "I wouldn't be surprised to see more ups and downs."
The S.& P. 500 closed down 6.92 points, or 0.4 percent, to 1,606.28. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 114.89 points, or 0.8 percent, to 14,909.60. The Nasdaq composite index rose 1.38 points, or 0.04 percent, to 3,403.25.
Stocks have jumped around in June. By contrast, the first five months of the year were mostly calm, with small but steady gains as investors bought on news of higher home prices, record corporate earnings and an improving jobs market.
By May 21, the S.& P. 500 had climbed to a record 1,669, up 18 percent for the year. The Fed chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, spoke the next day and prices began seesawing.
Investors have long known that the central bank would eventually pull back from its bond purchases, which are intended to lower interest rates and get people to borrow and spend more. Last week, Mr. Bernanke got more specific about the timing, saying the Fed could start purchasing fewer bonds later this year and stop buying them completely by the middle of next year if the economy continued to strengthen.
Investors dumped stocks, but then had second thoughts this week as other Fed officials stressed that the central bank would not pull back on its support soon.
Bonds have also been on a bumpy ride in recent weeks, mostly down.
The prospect of fewer purchases by the Fed sent investors fleeing from all sorts of bonds — municipals, United States Treasury securities, corporate bonds, foreign government debt and high-yield bonds. Investors withdrew a record $23 billion from bond mutual funds in the five trading days that ended Wednesday, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Bond yields, which move in the opposite direction of bond prices, have rocketed. On Friday, the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell 3/32 to 93 19/32, bringing the yield up to 2.49 percent, from 2.47 percent late Thursday. Last month, the yield was as low as 1.63 percent.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
A Calm Close to a Volatile Month
Dengan url
https://dunialuasekali.blogspot.com/2013/06/a-calm-close-to-volatile-month.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
A Calm Close to a Volatile Month
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
A Calm Close to a Volatile Month
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar