August 20, 2015: Markets opened lower on Thursday and things got worse from there. The bad news started in China, where equities lost 3.4% in Shanghai. Rumors that Greek Prime Minister Tsipras would resign surfaced early in Europe and proved true by the end of the day. Gold settled up more than 2% today, but oil lost about 0.2% and natural gas added about 1% as the storage report showed inventories did not grow as much as expected. Shortly before the closing bell the DJIA traded down 1.74% for the day, the S&P 500 traded down 1.78%, and the Nasdaq Composite traded down 2.43%.

The DJIA stock posting the largest daily percentage loss ahead of the close Thursday was The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) which traded down 5.75% at $100.33. The stock’s 52-week range is $78.54 to $122.08. Trading volume was nearly 4 times higher than the daily average of around 8.4 million. The shift in favor from content producers like Disney to content distributors like cable companies goes on. Like all things that can’t go on forever, fortune will reverse itself again.

Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK) traded down 4.17% at $57.17. The stock’s 52-week range is $52.49 to $63.62. Trading volume was more than double the daily average of around 9 million. The company had no specific news today, but shares have given back all the gains they made in nearly a month.

The Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) traded lower by 3.62%% at $137.55. The stock’s 52-week range is $116.32 to $158.83. Trading volume was about 60% above the daily average of around 3.2 million. The airplane maker had no specific news today.

American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) traded down 2.52% at $78.91. The stock’s 52-week range is $74.30 to $94.89. About 5.6 million shares traded hands today, nearly equal to the daily average of about 6 million. The company had no specific news today.

Of the Dow 30 stocks 28 are set to close lower today and just 2 are on track to close higher.

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