Pre earnings jitters set in
U.S. stocks closed with sizable losses on Tuesday, 31 March 2015 leaving the Dow industrials in the red for the year's first quarter. Traders blamed the session's drop on expectations for disappointing first-quarter earnings.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 200.19 points, or 1.1%, at 17,776.12. For the quarter, the blue-chip gauge lost 46.95 points, or nearly 0.3%, snapping a three-quarter winning streak. The S&P 500 finished down 18.35 points, or 0.9%, at 2,067.89. The benchmark still managed a quarterly gain of 0.4%, extending its winning streak to nine quarters. The Nasdaq Composite fell 46.56 points, or 0.9%, at 4,900.88, as the tech-heavy index scored a 3.5% advance for the quarter. The Nasdaq has climbed for nine quarters in a row for its longest quarterly winning streak in its history.
Nine of ten sectors ended the month in negative territory while health care gained in March.
IBM Corp said Tuesday it plans to invest $3 billion in a new Internet of Things business that will help customers gather and analyze data from sensor-equipped devices and smartphones. Shares closed down 1.3%.
The euro declined Tuesday as concerns about a Greek default remain elevated, likely providing somewhat of a boost to gold. Any gains for dollar-denominated commodities were capped by a climb in the ICE U.S. dollar index which was on track for its strongest quarter since 2008.
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Prices for the commodities on Tuesday likely found some support from weakness in U.S. equities, which headed lower as investors fretted over quarterly results. Data showed that the Chicago business barometer rose in February but remained in contraction territory, while consumer confidence surged in March.
Reports indictaed that the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index increased to 101.3 in March from an upwardly revised 98.8 (from 96.4) while the consensus expected the reading to hold at 96.4. Labor market improvements catalyzed the increase in confidence as initial claims levels returned to their sub-300,000 trend over the past couple of weeks. The Chicago PMI increased to 46.3 in March from 45.8 in February while the consensus expected an increase to 52.0. Chicago PMI fell from 59.4 to 45.8 in February, which was immediately blamed on extreme weather conditions. As weather conditions returned to normal in March, manufacturing activities were expected to return to their previous expansionary cycle, but that did not happen. Also, the Case-Shiller 20-city Home Price Index for January rose 4.6%, which is what the consensus expected. The previous month's increase was revised to 4.4% from 4.5%.
Bullion prices ended lower on Tuesday, 31 March 2015 at Comex. Gold futures settled lower on Tuesday, marking a second straight monthly loss, with prices pressured by overall strength in the U.S. dollar.
Gold for June delivery which is the most-active futures contract, fell by $2.10, or 0.2%, to settle at $1,183.20 an ounce on Comex. For the month, prices lost around 2.5% and for the month and fell roughly 0.1% for the quarter, based on the most-active contracts. On Monday, gold futures fell for a second session, hobbled by strength in the dollar and a rally in equities. May silver fell 7.6 cents, or 0.5%, to $16.598 an ounce. Prices were up roughly 0.3% for the month, gaining more than 6% for the quarter.
Oil prices settled lower on Tuesday, 31 March 2015 as traders awaited outcome of the Iranian nuclear talks, which could pave the way for more Iranian crude oil adding to a persistent global oil glut. Prices logged losses for the month as well as the quarter on the back of excess supply and tightening storage in the U.S.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude for delivery in May settled at $47.60 a barrel, down $1.08, or 2.2% from Monday's settlement. Based on the front-month contracts, prices lost 4.3% for the month and were down 10.6% for the quarter.
Traders will spend much of this holiday-shortened week looking ahead to the March U.S. jobs report due Friday.
Today's participation was better than average with roughly 950 million shares changing hands at the NYSE floor.
Tomorrow, the weekly MBA Mortgage Index will be released at 7:00 ET while the ADP Employment report for March (consensus 225K) will cross the wires at 8:15 ET. The day's data will be topped off with the 10:00 ET release of the March ISM Index (consensus 52.5) and the Construction Spending report for February (expected -0.3%).
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