Stocks slid sharply, with the Dow and S&P 500 suffering their biggest one-day decline of the year, as Italian elections and looming spending cuts in the U.S. hit sentiment. Wall Street's so-called fear gauge, the CBOE market volatility index surged 32%. Also, many traders said that stocks have been vulnerable to a pullback after making a run at new all-time highs earlier this month. The worries about Italy also overshadowed reports that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe nominated an advocate of aggressive monetary easing to head the Bank of Japan. Zynga rose 7.5% in the wake of measures taken late last week by the state of Nevada to legalize online poker, and New Jersey that would allow Internet-based gambling in conjunction with Atlantic City casinos. Hewlett-Packard gave up 0.7% after The Wall Street Journal reported that board members are meeting with a group of investors seeking the ouster of three directors. Apple fell 1.8% after Samsung Electronics announced an event for New York City on March 14, where it is expected to debut its next Galaxy S smartphone. Facebook rose 0.5% after the co. said it would offer free or discounted messaging access to members in more than a dozen countries, via those members’ mobile-phone operators. After the closing bell Autodesk slid 2.7% as the co. reported better-than-expected earnings but issued weak forecast.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Slid on Italian elections
Stocks slid sharply, with the Dow and S&P 500 suffering their biggest one-day decline of the year, as Italian elections and looming spending cuts in the U.S. hit sentiment. Wall Street's so-called fear gauge, the CBOE market volatility index surged 32%. Also, many traders said that stocks have been vulnerable to a pullback after making a run at new all-time highs earlier this month. The worries about Italy also overshadowed reports that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe nominated an advocate of aggressive monetary easing to head the Bank of Japan. Zynga rose 7.5% in the wake of measures taken late last week by the state of Nevada to legalize online poker, and New Jersey that would allow Internet-based gambling in conjunction with Atlantic City casinos. Hewlett-Packard gave up 0.7% after The Wall Street Journal reported that board members are meeting with a group of investors seeking the ouster of three directors. Apple fell 1.8% after Samsung Electronics announced an event for New York City on March 14, where it is expected to debut its next Galaxy S smartphone. Facebook rose 0.5% after the co. said it would offer free or discounted messaging access to members in more than a dozen countries, via those members’ mobile-phone operators. After the closing bell Autodesk slid 2.7% as the co. reported better-than-expected earnings but issued weak forecast.
