Stocks Reverse Early Gains, Close Down

With the major benchmark indexes coming off two weeks of losses, stocks opened higher following Friday’s rally but despite there being no new data, the markets slid into negative territory in the late morning ahead of third quarter earnings and continuing interest rate jitters.

Market Radar - % Change

After last week’s slide which had been the largest since Aug. 1, crude oil prices rebounded slightly settling at $90.34 per barrel up $0.60 or 0.67%. Gold jumped 1.21% gaining $14.40 to settle at $1,207.30 per ounce.

All of the major benchmarks slipped into the red in the afternoon. The Dow Jones Industrials (INDEXDJX:DJI) crossed zero 31 times until finally giving up earlier gains to close at 16,991.97 a loss of 17.72 points or 0.1%.  The S&P 500 (INDEXSP:GSPC) lost 3.05 points to close at 1,964.85 down 0.15%.

The NASDAQ Composite (NASDAQ:IXIC) fell 20.82 points to close down 0.47% at 4,454.80 while the tech heavy NASDAQ 100 fell 0.27% or 11.04 points and closed at 4,016.27.

The Small Cap Russell 2000 saw the day’s steepest decline losing 0.91% to close at 1,094.65 down 10.09 points.  The Fox50 closed almost flat at 1,399.86 down 0.03% or 0.37 points.