Dow Jones Industrial Average Slumps Today on Poor Retail Earnings

Garrett Baldwin

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted more than 100 points on Tuesday after a sharp selloff in retail stocks rattled the markets.

Here are today's closing numbers:

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 16,374.31, -0.83%
S&P 500: 1,872.84, -0.65%
Nasdaq: 4,096.89, -0.70%

Now here are the top stories from the stock market today:

• Sneak Peak for Tomorrow: During a speech today, New York Fed President William Dudley might have offered insight into what to expect from the release of the Federal Open Market Committee minutes tomorrow. Dudley said the U.S. Federal Reserve will likely increase rates at an incremental pace, with the market's performance in mind. Dudley suggested that if an interest rate hike has little impact on the market, the central bank may accelerate the pace of future increases.

• Can You Hear Me Now: The Federal Communications Commission has ordered Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) to pay a $7.5 million fine for violating the nation's Do-Not-Call list regulations. This is the largest fine ever issued by the federal agency over Do-Not-Call rules. In addition to the fine, Sprint must implement a two-year program to conform with FCC standards.

• Blame It on the Weather: The retail onslaught continued on Tuesday. Headlining the carnage were shares of Staples Inc. (Nasdaq: SPLS), which plunged more than 12% on news that the office-supply company missed quarterly estimates by $0.03 per share. Quarterly revenues slumped by 3% and profits by 43% in the first quarter.

• We Struck Oil… Lots of Oil: In December 2013, Dr. Kent Moors let our readers in on a way to invest directly in a new oil and gas drilling venture. In the time since, we've been spending a great deal of time at the drilling site in South Texas, keeping an eye on the progress. Now, there's news to report. Great news… and greater profits.

• Housing Slumping: According to housing aggregator Zillow, more than 18.8% of U.S. homeowners with a mortgage, or almost 10 million households, were still underwater on their payments at the end of the first quarter. The hardest hit cities by the trend were Las Vegas, Atlanta, Orlando, Chicago, and Tampa.

Garrett Baldwin

About the Author

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Garrett Baldwin is a globally recognized research economist, financial writer, and consultant with degrees from Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Purdue, and Indiana University. He is a seasoned financial and political risk analyst, with a focus on stocks, hedge funds, private equity, blockchain, and housing policy. He has conducted risk assessment projects for clients in 27 countries, and consulted on policy and financial operations for some of the nation's largest financial institutions, including a $1.5 trillion credit fund, a $43 billion credit and auto loan giant, as well as two of the largest Wall Street banks by assets under management.

Garrett joined Money Map Press as an economist and researcher in 2011, specializing in alternative strategies with an emphasis on fundamental and technical analysis.

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