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:
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.
Selling Off: Shares of Sears Holding Corp. (Nasdaq: SHLD) were back in the red today on news that the company is struggling to divest its Canadian division amid a lack of interested buyers. The company's woes continue just days after it was forced to take a $400 million loan from its CEO's hedge fund in order to meet financial obligations through the end of 2014. Sears wasn't the only company looking to divest foreign holdings today. Shares of The Clorox Co. (NYSE: CLX) were up 7% on news that the company is shutting down its operations in Venezuela and seeking a strategic buyer for its assets.
Stopping a Pandemic: Shares of Tekmira PharmaceuticalsCorp. (Nasdaq: TKMR) were up more than 17% this afternoon on news the company's Ebola treatment has been given permission by the Food and Drug Administration to treat some patients who have been confirmed to have been infected. The outbreak in Africa has continued to worsen, with concerns that up to 500,000 people have been exposed. Shares of Tekmira continue to rise, and are up more than 200% in the last 52 weeks.
Enter the Doves: The Federal Open Market Committee could become quite more dovish on economic policy in the next seven months. That's because Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Charles Plosser, one of the most hawkish economic policy makers in the central bank, will step down on March 1, 2015. Plosser has been a very outspoken critic of the U.S. Federal Reserve's quantitative easing efforts, which included record-low interest rates and massive cash injections into the markets through bond-purchasing programs.
Now our experts share some of the most important investment moves to make based on today's market trading - for Money Morning Members only:
252 Million Years Ago, This Nearly Wiped Out All Life... Tomorrow, It Could Solve Our Energy Problems: According to an April study issued in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, permafrost soil, which typically remains frozen all year, is thawing and decomposing at an accelerating rate. But after a shocking discovery, it seems something locked in the soil could become the fuel of the future... and you could profit big off the new revolution.
The Best Way to Invest in Google's 3D Printing Breakthrough: The 3D printing field has been around for many years now. It's one of the tech sector's most exciting fields - and it offers plenty of long-term upside. And one company in this sector is poised for a fresh breakout.
The Clear Map to This "Hidden" Investment Treasure: As scientists reach the discovery limits of "one-size-fits-all" drugs and the ailments that respond to them, such as infections and circulatory diseases, they find themselves up against tougher, wilier, more intractable challenges... But these companies tackling the genetics field are poised for major profits...
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.