Ashland

Although the U.S. stock market shook off worse than expected retail sales data, volatility hit other markets hard to end the week.Precious metals were slammed on the retail sales data along with some signs of deflationary pressures in Friday's economic data. Technical levels were broken to the downside during the sell-off, which exacerbated the losses in precious metals.Treasuries also surged on the day, which may be a sign that investors are preparing for a sell-off in stocks despite the Dow and S&P holding near record highs. All of the major averages closed lower on the day, but the losses were minor and the Dow was basically flat.Major AveragesThe Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the day unchanged at 14,865.The S&P 500 lost around 4.5 points, or 0.28 percent, to 1,589.The Nasdaq Composite fell 5 points, or 0.16 percent, to 3,295.Retail SalesRetail sales fell 0.4 percent in March after increasing 1.0 percent in February. This was worse than consensus expectations which expected re...

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