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August 13, 2018: Markets opened higher Monday but the joy didn’t last long. Only the Nasdaq made it out of the red for a while, and then only barely. Continued turmoil in the currency markets caused by the fall of the Turkish lira and how the problem might spread contributed to the bad mood among traders. The telecom sector and defensive stocks in general were Monday’s best performers; energy and materials were the poorest performers.

WTI crude oil for September delivery settled at $67.20 a barrel, down 0.6% for the day. December gold dropped 1.6% to settle at $1,198.90, it’s lowest settlement since late January. Equities were heading for a lower close about 10 minutes before the bell as the Dow traded down 0.41% for the day, the S&P 500 traded down 0.35%, and the Nasdaq Composite traded down 0.15%.

Bitcoin futures (XBTQ8) for August delivery traded at $6,225, down about 2.4% on the CBOE after opening at $6,380 this morning. The trading range today was $6,1305 to $6,540.

The Dow stock posting the largest daily percentage loss ahead of the close Monday was DowDuPont Inc. (NYSE: DWDP) which traded down 1.60% at $66.65. The stock’s 52-week range is $61.27 to $77.08. Volume was about 50% below the daily average of around 7.5 million.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) traded down 1.46% at $114.05. The stock’s 52-week range is $88.08 to $119.33. Volume was about 45% below the daily average of around 25.2 million shares.

The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) traded down 1.21% at $226.83 in a 52-week range of $214.64 to $275.31. Volume was about 25% below the daily average of around 2.9 million shares.

International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) traded down 1.16% at $142.80. The 52-range on the stock is $137.45 to $171.13. Volume of around 2.2 million was about 50% below the daily average.

Of the Dow stocks, 8 were set to close higher Monday and 22 were on track to close lower.