Why the Dow Jones Industrial Average Slumped Today

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped 0.78% to close at 16,401.02 on Tuesday on news that Ukraine casualties continued to rise. Adding to the decline was the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) decision to slash its 2014 global growth forecast from 3.6% to 3.4%.

The S&P 500 finished down 0.90% to close at 1,867.72 points. The Nasdaq Composite also finished down, closing at 4,080.76 points for a 1.38% loss.

Here's your recap of today's major market events.

  1. Twitter Plunges: Shares of Twitter Inc. (Nasdaq: TWTR) crashed to close at 17.75% on the first day its IPO lockout expired. Tuesday marked 180 days since the shares first became public, allowing insiders to sell shares for the first time. Many of the company's top executive and top institutional investors agreed not to sell immediately. However, that support couldn't stave off the steep downturn in share prices. The stock has fallen 49.88% year to date.
  2. Dow Jones Industrial Average

  3. Hillary 2016: It certainly looks like blue-chip companies have already selected its candidate for 2016. According to Bloomberg, 29 of the 30 Dow Jones Industrial Average Index companies have financially supported projects branded by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, and Hillary and Chelsea Clinton. Bloomberg based its analysis on reports from the Clinton Foundation and the U.S. State Department.
  4. Holding the Reins: Although Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK) sold its consumer retail business for $14.2 billion this morning, the company's CEO says it will likely hold on to its animal health business. Kenneth Frazier has resisted calls from Wall Street to unload the animal health division and told Forbes that he'd prefer to bulk up the business. Specifically, Frazier cited strong growth prospects, an improved product pipeline, and favorable macroeconomic outlooks around the globe. Animal health is a $22 billion industry that few investors take the time to learn about.
  5. Banks Behaving Badly: The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fined Morgan Stanley's (NYSE: MS) Smith Barney unit $5 million for failing to properly supervise the sale of stock to retail investors in 83 initial public offerings (IPOs). The list of companies that Smith Barney mismanaged (renamed Morgan Stanley Wealth Management in 2013) included popular tech companies Facebook Inc. (Nasdaq: FB) and Yelp Inc. (Nasdaq: YELP). Morgan Stanley is currently the world's largest IPO underwriter, with a strong 9.5% market share.
  6. The Battle Isn't Over: Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca Plc (NYSE: AZN) lashed out against the $106 billion bid offered by its rival Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) on Tuesday, stating that the offer undervalues its growth potential. Citing expected growth from 2017 to 2023, the company forecasted that its sales would reach $45 billion per year within the next decade. The projection is remarkably bullish given that the company's 2013 sales sat at $25.7 billion.

Tuesday's Top Three Profit Opportunities

  1. This One Factor Will Isolate Huge Winners... Quickly: If you're a do-it-yourself type of investor, you might be overwhelmed trying to make heads or tails of all the information at your disposal. But let's take a moment to demystify how to use a stock screener - and then we'll finish up with a "cherry on the top." It's an additional input that will take you quickly to tremendous gains...
  2. The Emerging Market Game Changer Is Here: Many observers thought the BRICS nations would encounter too many obstacles to collaborate effectively in creating an institution to take on the IMF. But after announcing such plans just over a year ago, the next BRICS summit in July is likely to see the official launch of these institutions. The implications are huge for investors...
  3. The "Holy Grail" of Energy Investing Is Going to Make You - and Your Grandchildren - Rich: Storage has long been one of energy's biggest "Holy Grails." It holds the key to every significant move into smart grids. So the basic question becomes how to "save" energy from being lost. That's what's at the center of a breakthrough project our Dr. Kent Moors discovered this week...

About the Author

Garrett Baldwin is a globally recognized research economist, financial writer, consultant, and political risk analyst with decades of trading experience and degrees in economics, cybersecurity, and business from Johns Hopkins, Purdue, Indiana University, and Northwestern.

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