U.S. stock indexes slide on global view
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stocks fell Tuesday after the Bank of Japan disappointed some investors by holding its policy steady and worries about Federal Reserve tapering continued to haunt the market.
“Today is going to be a truly global marketplace, because the Bank of Japan didn’t have more to say about the volatility in their bond markets,” said Art Hogan, market strategist at Lazard Capital Markets.
“And we have a choppy economic recovery and a big question mark about our monetary policy,” Hogan said.
Investors have been watching closely U.S. economic data for any clues as to when the Fed may begin to scale back its monthly bond purchases.
”It does feel like in the last couple of weeks, news has been affecting all markets, not just regional,” said Richard Slinn, an investment specialist at J.P. Morgan Private Bank in San Francisco.
Along with Asian and European stocks, the dollar fell sharply against the Japanese yen (USDJPY) after the Bank of Japan decided to stay put on its policies, dashing some hopes that the central bank would extend the duration on its ultra-low interest rates to banks.
Global stocks were also rattled as a German constitutional court began to consider the legality of the European Central Bank’s pledge last year to buy the government bonds of weaker euro-zone countries to prevent the single currency from breaking up.
Extending losses into a second session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) fell as much as 152 points, and was lately down 58.97 points, or 0.4%, at 15,179.62, with Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) pacing declines that included 24 of its 30 components.
The S&P 500 index (SPX) dropped 8.61 points, or 0.5%, to 1,634.20, with the financial sector hardest hit and telecommunications the sole group in the green among its 10 major industries.
The Nasdaq Composite (COMP) slid 17.18 points, or 0.5%, to 3,456.58.
For every stock rising, nearly six fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where 212 million shares traded by 11:15 a.m. Eastern.
Composite volume approached 1.2 billion.
Gold futures shed 0.8% to 1,375.20 an ounce and crude fell 1.2% to $94.90 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Inventories at U.S. businesses climbed 0.2% in April to $504.8 billion, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. Separately, the Labor Department said job openings at U.S. workplaces fell to 3.76 million in April from 3.88 million in March.