Microsoft, Goldman Sachs Tank the Dow Tuesday

March 27, 2018 by Paul Ausick

March 27, 2018: Markets opened higher again Tuesday but none of the major indexes could hold onto the gains. The Conference Board reported a slight dip in consumer confidence this morning and that may have taken some of the steam out of investors who pushed stocks sharply higher Monday. Tech stocks were hit particularly hard in Tuesday’s trading.

WTI crude oil for May delivery settled at $65.25 a barrel, down 0.5% for the day. April gold dropped about 1% on the day to settle at $1,342.00. Equities were headed for a lower close about 10 minutes before the bell as the Dow traded down 1.74% for the day, the S&P 500 traded down 2.09%, and the Nasdaq Composite traded down 3.35%.

Bitcoin futures (XBTJ8) for April delivery traded at $7,890, down about 0.4% on the CBOE after opening at $7,910 this morning. The digital currency’s trading range for the day was $7,740 to $8,280.

The Dow stock posting the largest daily percentage loss ahead of the close Tuesday was Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) which traded down 4.71% at $89.36. The stock’s 52-week range is $64.65 to $97.24. Volume was about 20% above the daily average of around 31.8 million. Today’s giveback totaled more than half of yesterday’s big gain.

The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) traded down 3.33% at $246.36. The stock’s 52-week range is $209.62 to $275.31. Volume was about 30% below the daily average of about 3.5 million shares. The company had no specific news

Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) traded down 3.06% at $42.71. The stock’s 52-week range is $30.36 to $46.16. Volume was about 40% below the daily average of about 28.1 million. The company has been added to Goldman’s Conviction Buy List, but that doesn’t mean it’s perfect.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) traded down 2.83% at $167.88 in a 52-week range of $140.06 to $183.50. Volume of about 32 million shares was around 15% below the daily average. The company announced a new iPad this morning for the education market, but a reasonable question might be, “What’s the point?

Of the Dow stocks, 5 are on track to close higher Tuesday and 25 are set to close lower.

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