Dow Jones News: Markets Fall After President Donald Trump Dumps on U.S. Dollar

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In Dow Jones news, the markets fell Wednesday after President Donald Trump took aim at the strength of the U.S. dollar and geopolitical uncertainty continued to rattle investor confidence.

Let's look at the numbers from Wednesday for the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq:

Dow Jones: 20,591.86; -59.44; -0.29%

S&P 500: 2,344.93; -8.85; -0.38%

Nasdaq: 5,836.16; -30.61; -0.52%

Today's market highlights:

President Trump says that U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's job is safe, but that the U.S. dollar is getting too strong against other currencies around the globe.
Industrial and materials stocks weighed on the Dow, while telecom and financial stocks helped reduce today's downturn.
With earnings season kicking off, investors are looking at the financial sector. Tomorrow, Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC), Citigroup (NYSE: C) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) will all report quarterly earnings results.

Now, here's a look at today's most important market events and stocks, plus a preview of Thursday's economic calendar.

DJIA Today: Dow Slides After Trump Calls U.S. Dollar Too Strong

The Dow Jones dropped close to 60 points Wednesday as geopolitical concerns about Syria, China, and North Korea continued to shake investor sentiment. Markets also reacted to a statement by President Donald Trump in which he said the U.S. dollar was "getting too strong." His comments fueled a flight to safe-haven assets like gold and the Japanese yen. The CBOE Volatility Index – widely considered the markets' fear gauge – jumped over 6% today.

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Gold prices were the biggest beneficiary of Trump's statement as they hovered near a five-month high. Gold prices added 0.8%, while silver prices climbed 0.96%.
Crude oil prices fell Wednesday on news that U.S. inventory levels continue to remain stubbornly high. The weekly inventory report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration indicated that domestic crude stocks increased by 276,000 barrels at Cushing, Okla., the nation's largest delivery point. Despite the uptick, overall crude inventory levels declined by 2.2 million barrels around the country.
WTI crude oil fell by roughly 0.8%, while Brent crude dropped by 0.9%.

But the story slipping beneath everyone's radar today is happening at Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL). Readers of Money Morning who acted on our Apple supplier stocks recommendations that were made just four months ago have made profits of as much as 55%. Now we have two more picks – and investors should expect big things out of these two Apple suppliers.

Stock Market News and Top Stocks to Watch Today: April 12, 2017

- In earnings news, shares of Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL) fell more than 0.5% after the airline company topped first-quarter profit expectations but fell short on revenue. The company reported earnings per share (EPS) of $0.77, beating consensus expectations of $0.73. However, its $9.148 billion in quarterly revenue was short of the expected $9.156 billion. Despite the mixed numbers, Wall Street was optimistic about the company's key metric for the current quarter: passenger-unit revenue.
- Shares of Whole Foods Market Inc. (Nasdaq: WFM) are in focus after an activist hedge fund filed a 13D with the SEC regarding its stake in the company. Jana Partners announced that it has been building up a stake in the retail grocery giant since February. The activist fund now has an 8.3% stake, or 26.31 million shares. The firm also owns options to purchase 3.53 million additional shares.

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In deal news, shares of Valspar Corp. (NYSE: VAL) added 1% after the company announced plans to sell its domestic wood coatings division to Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: AXTA) for $420 million. Shares of AXTA stock fell 1.1% on the news.
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After the bell, look for an additional earnings report from Pier 1 Imports Inc. (NYSE: PIR).