“U.S. stock losses escalated Wednesday, with the Dow industrials and S&P 500 retreating from record highs, after disappointing labor-market data ahead of Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report,” Kate Gibson reports for MarketWatch.
“‘If you stack up economic data over the last few days, a handful have disappointed, including today,’ said Art Hogan, a market strategist at Lazard Capital Markets,” Gibson reports. “Friday’s ‘big employment report will determine the next direction for the market, at least for the short term,’ said Randy Frederick, managing director of active trading and derivatives… For every share rising, three fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where 463 million shares traded as of 3 p.m. Eastern.”
Gibson reports, “Lazard’s Hogan played down the notion that the market’s decline had much to do with… North Korea. ‘If we were really worried about North Korea, gold would not be making a new low,’ said Hogan at Lazard Capital Markets. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures closed at a nine-month low. ‘Everybody has been long gold for three years. It feels like the same liquidation that Apple [AAPL +$2.06, +0.48%, $431.85] has been going through,’ he added.”
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