After three days of struggling to maintain 2,000 points on the S&P 500, the index fell victim to late-day selling. Confirming the move is an uptick in volume. Seven and a half percent more shares of S&P 500 companies traded Thursday versus Wednesday.
Major Averages
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- The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 8.7 points, or 0.1 percent, to 17,070.
- The S&P 500 gave up 3.1 points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,998.
- The Nasdaq Composite lost 10.3 points, or 0.2 percent, to close at 4,562.
Top Stories
A judge ruled that BP (NYSE: BP) was grossly negligent in the 2010 gulf oil spill, a ruling that could cost the company $18 billion. Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) and Transocean (NYSE: RIG) were cleared of gross negligence.
One of 2014’s hottest IPOs, El Pollo Loco (NASDAQ: LOCO) reported earnings after the bell. Shares are trading higher after the company reported top and bottom line beats.
Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) has settled with the FTC for $19 million in an app billing case. According to the FTC, Google wrongly billed parents when their children purchased products from the company’s app store.
Stock Movers
PVH (NYSE: PVH) shares shot up 9.6 percent to $128.38 after the company reported better than expected second-quarter earnings. The company expected earnings growth of more than 15 percent for the second half of 2014.
Shares of TIBCO Software (NASDAQ: TIBX) got a boost, shooting up 2.7 percent to $21.61 on news the company hired an investment bank to explore strategic options.
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Hovnanian Enterprises (NYSE: HOV) shares were also up, gaining 1.1 percent to $4.25 after the company reported upbeat earnings for its fiscal third quarter.
Shares of Matrix Service Company (NASDAQ: MTRX) were down 22.86 percent to $22.86 after the company reported downbeat quarterly results.
Ciena (NYSE: CIEN) shares tumbled 9.5 percent to $18.51 after the company issued a weak fiscal fourth-quarter forecast. However, the company reported upbeat third-quarter results.
Commodities
Following Wednesday’s spike higher, profit taking kicked in for gold futures. Contracts were last trading at $1,263.60, a 0.5 percent decline.
Crude oil behaved similarly; the commodities have been closely tracking each other over the past week. Crude futures were last trading one percent lower at $94.60.
Currencies
The U.S. Dollar is the strongest it has been since the start of 2014, according to the PowerShares ETF (NYSE: UUP), which tracks the greenback versus a basket of foreign currencies. The value increased by 1.04 percent on the session.
The closely watched EUR/USD pair fell 1.6 percent on USD strength to $1.294. This makes a one-year low for the pair. Just two weeks ago the currencies were trading hands at $1.34.
Global Markets
Asian markets were mixed overnight. The Shanghai index rose 0.8 percent with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng down 0.1 percent. Japan’s volatile Nikkei gave up one-third of a percent on the day.
European markets, on the other hand, rallied higher. The Euro Stoxx index, which tracks 50 euro zone blue chips gained 1.8 percent percent. London’s FTSE rose 0.1 percent, and France’s CAC jumped 1.65 percent.