March 26th 2014 – Stocks Close Down on Heightened Ukraine Worries

U.S. stocks slid on Wednesday, with benchmark indexes failing to maintain a second day of gains, after President Barack Obama cautioned against complacency on Russian moves in Ukraine.

Ukraine and the International Monetary Fund held bailout discussions Wednesday as the United States and European allies cautioned that they would take further steps if Russia escalates the crisis after annexing Crimea.

Speaking in Brussels, Obama said Russia’s actions had to be condemned.

Financial-data firm Markit reported its Purchasing Managers Index hit 55.8 in March, up from 54.1 a month earlier.

After the market close, the Federal Reserve follows up on its yearly stress tests of the nation’s 30 largest lenders, with regulators expected to signal whether institutions including Citigroup and Bank of America can go ahead with proposed dividends and share buybacks.

Thursday:  8:30 a.m.: GDP revision Q4, 8:30 a.m.: Weekly jobless claims, 8:30 a.m.: Fed’s Pianalto speaks, 10 a.m.: Pending home sales index for February, 10:30 a.m.: Natural gas inventories, 11 a.m.: Kansas City Fed manufacturing index, 1 p.m.: Seven-year note auction, 4 p.m. Fed balance sheet/money supply, 9:30 p.m.: Fed’s Evans speaks

News Sources:  CNBC and CNN Money

My Market View:

There is an odd imbalance happening right now between the tech heavy Nasdaq and the Dow Jones and S&P 500.  It is very unusual for the Nasdaq to decline so much in such a short space of time while the others are not showing the same kind of volatility.  I am still looking for a bounce back within the Nasdaq.  It is approaching oversold levels, so a bottom should be in place soon, at least in the short term.