Stocks retreat on government shutdown fears
U.S. stocks were in a broad-based retreat Friday afternoon as a government shutdown loomed.
Investors appeared resigned to the view that a budgetary standoff between President Trump and Senate Democrats over border wall funding will result in a government shutdown.
Earlier this week, the U.S. House had passed a spending package that included $5 billion for Trump’s campaign-promised border wall. But in the Senate, where 60 votes are needed for passage of the spending bill, the measure appeared dead on arrival.
Shortly after the opening bell Friday, shares rose as a durable goods report and a revision to the third-quarter gross domestic product -- both somewhat weaker than expected -- indicated that the Federal Reserve might have less reason to raise interest rates.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I:DJI | DOW JONES AVERAGES | 42052.19 | +288.73 | +0.69% |
| SP500 | S&P 500 | 5728.8 | +23.35 | +0.41% |
| I:COMP | NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX | 18239.917355 | +144.77 | +0.80% |
But as the session wore on and a government shutdown appeared increasingly inevitable, the market had a broad-based decline. Shares of big capitalization and big tech companies led the retreat.
Shares of Google parent Alphabet fell below the $1,000 level for the first time since April 4. The shares entered a bear market Thursday and is currently down almost 23 percent from its record close of $1,285.50 on July 26.
Facebook shares shares were also falling hard.
Shares of packaged foods company Conagra Brands tumbled to a 52-week low after the company missed sales expectations.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GOOGL | ALPHABET INC. | 171.29 | +0.18 | +0.11% |
| FB | NO DATA AVAILABLE | - | - | - |
| CAG | CONAGRA BRANDS INC. | 28.97 | +0.03 | +0.10% |
| NFLX | NETFLIX INC. | 756.10 | +0.07 | +0.01% |
| AMZN | AMAZON.COM INC. | 197.93 | +11.53 | +6.19% |
On Thursday, U.S. shares tumbled with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling nearly 500 points or about 2 percent and sliding below 23,000 for the first time in 14 months.
Along with the blue-chip index, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite also plummeted, now flirting with bear market territory. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 lost over 1 percent during the session. At the same time, volatility spiked to the highest level since February.
The selling accelerated after President Trump told House Republican leaders Thursday he will not sign a Senate-passed spending package that does not include sought-after border security funds, upending negotiations to avert a government shutdown by the end of the week as reported by Fox News.
Japan's Nikkei finished the session lower by 1.1 percent and down 5.6 percent for the week.
China’s Shanghai Composite ended the day down 0.8 percent and off 3 percent for the week.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index closed out the day higher by 0.5 percent, but fell 1.3 percent for the week.
In European trading, London’s FTSE traded little changed, Germany’s DAX added 0.2 percent and France’s CAC was little changed.
FOX Business' Mike Obel contributed to this article.