Wall Street rally goes up in smoke

A strong rally on Wall Street evaporated on Tuesday and stocks ended with deep losses as concerns about China’s economy outweighed lower valuations that some saw earlier as bargains. In a dramatic trading session, major indices turned negative in the final minutes of trading after previously climbing almost 3 per cent. Investors cited more worries that a slowdown in China could hobble global growth, even after the country’s central bank cut interest rates on Tuesday for the second time in two months. The move came after Chinese stocks slumped 8 per cent on Tuesday, on top of an 8.5 per cent drop on Monday. Tuesday’s drop followed steeper losses on Monday, when the Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 1,000 points at its lows and the S&P 500 recorded its worst day since 2011. In the past week, the S&P has lost 11 per cent. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 204.91 points, or 1.29 per cent, to end at 15,666.44. The S&P 500 lost 25.59 points, or 1.35 per cent, to finish at 1,867.62 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 19.76 points, or 0.44 per cent, to 4,506.49. Earlier, the S&P rose as much 2.9 per cent, the Dow as much as 2.8 per cent and the Nasdaq as much as 3.6 per cent. JPMorgan cut its year-end target for the S&P 500 to 2,150 from 2,250. All of the 10 major S&P sectors were lower, with the utilities index’s 3.2-per cent drop leading the decline. Pepco Holdings Inc fell 16.47 per cent after a District of Columbia regulator denied Exelon Corp's $6.8 billion bid for the power utility, possibly delivering a knockout blow to the deal. Monday's pummeling pushed the S&P 500's valuation down to about 15 times expected earnings, compared to around 17 for much of 2015 and just above a 10-year average of 14.7, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine. Data on Tuesday showed US consumer confidence increased to a 7-month high in August. New US single-family home sales rebounded in July, adding to evidence of underlying strength in the economy that could allow the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates this year. Best Buy jumped 12.57 per cent after the owner of the biggest US electronics chain reported an unexpected increase in quarterly sales. Decliners outnumbered rising stocks on the NYSE by 1,721 to 1,384. On the Nasdaq, 1,480 issues fell and 1,379 advanced. The S&P 500 index showed just one new 52-week high and 47 new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 7 new highs and 125 new lows. Volume was heavy, with about 10.4 billion (1 thousand four hundred crore) shares traded on US exchanges, far above the 7.5 billion average this month, according to BATS Global Markets, reports Reuters.
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