Wacky Week: Wall Street Taps Records, Then Dips

FOX Business: Capitalism Lives Here

Despite logging fresh record highs on Tuesday, a selloff on Thursday left the broad-market averages in the red for the week.

Today's Markets

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 44.5 points, or 0.27%, to 16491, the S&P 500 rose 7 points, or 0.37%, to 1878 and the Nasdaq Composite jumped 21.3 points, or 0.52%, to 4091.

For the week, the Dow fell 0.56%, the S&P 500 dipped 0.03% and the Nasdaq rose 0.46%.

The broad S&P 500 sustained its worst selloff in more than a month on Thursday as worries about growth sent traders dashing for the exits. Economically-sensitive names took the brunt of the selling. The volatility this year have left the major market averages essentially hovering about the unchanged line.

There are two major reports on the economic docket.

The Commerce Department said starts of new home construction jumped 13.2% in April to an annualized rate of 1.07 million units, more than the 980,000 starts Wall Street anticipated for the month. Permits, meanwhile, rose 8% to an annualized rate of 1.08 million in the same month, the highest rate since June 2008. Wall Street was expecting a slightly lower number of 1.01 million.

In corporate news, J.C. Penney (NYSE:JCP) posted a shallower-than-feared quarterly loss and stronger-than-expected revenues. Shares of the retailer, which has been working to stage a recovery, soared on the news. Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) unveiled an acquisition of Latin American player CFR Pharmaceuticals in a deal valued at about $2.9 billion, net of debt.

Elsewhere, U.S. crude oil futures rose 20 cents, or 0.2%, to $101.70 a barrel. Wholesale New York Harbor gasoline advanced 0.04% to $2.965 a gallon. Gold fell slightly to $1,293 a troy ounce.