Stocks Fall Day After FOMC
The U.S. stock market closed lower a day after the Federal Reserve announced additional quantitative easing and said that interest rates would remain low until either the unemployment rate fell below 6.5 percent, or inflation rose above 2.5 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost around 75 points to close at 13,170. The widely watched blue chip index traded in a range between 13,147 and 13,264.
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSE:SPY) lost 0.61 percent to close at $142.63. Volume was lighter than normal with around 129.5 million SPY shares trading hands compared to a three-month daily average of 135.5 million.
The PowerShares QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ), which tracks the performance of the Nasdaq 100, fell 0.79 percent to close at $65.31. The ETF's largest component Apple (NADSAQ:AAPL) fell 1.73 percent to $529.69.
Crude oil also fell on the day. NYMEX crude futures were last trading down 0.78 percent to $86.10 while Brent crude contracts had lost 1.25 percent to $108.13. In ETF trading, the United States Oil Fund ETF (NYSE:USO) fell 0.63 percent to $31.58.
Precious metals also were lower on the session. COMEX gold futures fell 1.15 percent to $1,698.20 at last check while silver futures were down 3.47 percent to $32.61. The heavily traded SPDR Gold Trust ETF (NYSE:GLD) closed the session down 0.84 percent to $164.39.
Long-term Treasuries were slightly higher on the day. The iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (NYSE:TLT) added 0.07 percent to $122.68. The yield on the 10-Year Note rose 3 basis points to 1.73 percent.
The U.S. dollar was also slightly higher on Thursday. The PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish ETF (NYSE:UUP), which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of foreign currencies, added 0.09 percent to $21.86. The closely watched EUR/USD pair was last trading at $1.3075.
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