S&P 500 Suffers Steepest Decline in Almost 7 Weeks Today Amid China Concerns

Stock market today, Sept. 22, 2014: The S&P 500 saw its biggest drop since Aug. 5 as U.S. markets pulled back on Monday amid poor data in the U.S. housing market and ongoing concerns about manufacturing levels in China.

According to reports, China's finance minister said the country does not plan to increase stimulus efforts in the near term, which leaves concerns about how investors will react when the nation's monthly manufacturing index is released tomorrow.

In addition, investors are keeping a keen eye on Europe, where shipments of Russian natural gas slipped again ahead of winter. In some central European nations, gas deliveries are falling at record rates, leaving citizens exposed to an unseasonably cold winter.

Here's the scorecard from today's trading session:

Dow: 17,172.68, -107.06 (-0.62%)
Nasdaq: 4,527.69, -52.10 (-1.14%)
S&P 500: 1,994.29, -16.11 (-0.80%)

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

• Sales Surge: Shares of Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) were up just 0.10% today in spite of great news about sales of its new iPhone 6. Today, Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook announced that the tech giant has sold more than 10 million new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus models in its first weekend. Cook said the company should have sold more units, but gaps in Apple's supply chain have led to a shortage, making it difficult to meet ongoing demand. Last year, the company sold nine million iPhones in its first weekend. The stock is currently hovering at just above $101 per share. Here's why the first weekend's record sales only hint at the impact the iPhone 6 will have on Apple stock…

• Alibaba IPO: Shares of Alibaba Holding Group Ltd. (NYSE: BABA) slipped a little more than 4% this afternoon, below its introductory price on Friday. The stock slipped after bankers expanded the IPO by exercising a number of options to purchase another 48 million shares to cover previous stock they had sold during last week's surge in investor demand. Meanwhile, shares of Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO), which still owns a large share of Alibaba after the IPO, slipped more than 5% after the company received downgrades from both Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) and Bernstein Research.

Garrett Baldwin

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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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