U.S. stocks traded close to even on Thursday, one day after the Dow plunged nearly 300 points in an ugly Wednesday for equities. The day pushed the Dow index back into negative numbers for 2015.
The Dow is now down about 2.5% thus far this week (remember, a 5% drop denotes a technical pullback) and showing no signs of recovery on Thursday. Numerous experts attribute the recent downturn to fears over potentially rising interest rates, plus the strengthening of the U.S. dollar.
This morning saw a spike in oil prices. The commodity was back above $50 per barrel after Saudi Arabian forces launched a military strike in Yemen.
Thursday was a quiet day on the data side, but cautious investors had plenty of other news to keep them busy.
Here are the numbers from Wall Street on Thursday:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 17,678.23 (-40.31)
NASDAQ: 4,863.36 (-13.16)
S&P 500: 2,056.15 (-4.90)
