Caterpillar, Boeing Tank the Dow Thursday

March 22, 2018 by Paul Ausick

March 22, 2018: Markets opened lower Thursday and never recovered. The pending announcement of Trump’s tariffs has hit industrial stocks hard while banks were getting knocked around over rising interbank (LIBOR) lending rates. And Facebook’s customer data leak continues weighing on tech stocks as well.

WTI crude oil for May delivery settled at $64.30 a barrel, down 1.3% for the day. April gold added about 0.5% on the day to settle at $1,327.40. Equities were headed for a lower close about 10 minutes before the bell as the Dow traded down 2.73% for the day, the S&P 500 traded down 2.39%, and the Nasdaq Composite traded down 2.24%.

Bitcoin futures (XBTJ8) for April delivery traded at $8,610, down about 3.4% on the CBOE after opening at $8,900 this morning. The digital currency’s trading range for the day was $8,500 to $9,110.

The Dow stock posting the largest daily percentage loss ahead of the close Thursday was Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) which traded down 5.03% at $147.96. The stock’s 52-week range is $90.34 to $173.24. Volume was about equal to the daily average of around 6.1 million. The company had no specific news.

The Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) traded down 4.42% at $322.21. The stock’s 52-week range is $173.75 to $371.60. Volume was about 15% below the daily average of about 5.9million shares. The company had no specific news Thursday, but an industry analyst noted that tariffs targeted at imports from China could lead to retaliation against against Boeing.

3M Company (NYSE: MMM) traded down 4.23% at $224.24 in a 52-week range of $188.62 to $259.77. Volume of about 2.5 million shares was around 15% below the daily average. The company had no specific news Thursday.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) traded down 4.02% at $110.13. The stock’s 52-week range is $81.64 to $119.33. Volume was slightly higher than the daily average of about 15.2 million. The company had no specific news today.

Of the Dow stocks, none is on track to close higher Thursday and all 30 are set to close lower.

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