Let's take a look at the global market highlights and news for March 28th 2014.
Markets give up year to date gains Citigroup tumbles as Feds reject bank plans
The New Zealand dollar continues to climb As the
month comes to a close and winter is over traders are expecting big things for the US
markets.
Wall Street moved between gains and losses in choppy trading Thursday, while the Nasdaq
Composite Index extended recent declines to near-two-month lows.
U.S. stocks fell erasing most of the S&P 500's year-to-date gain, as banking and technology
stocks led the selloff.
The benchmark S&P 500 turned nearly flat for the year after falling almost 1 percent this
week as many of the market's biggest trading favorites lost their momentum.
The Dow Jones dipped 4.76 points or 0.03 percent, to end at 16-2-64.23.
The S&P 500 lost 3.52 points to close at 18-49.04.
The NASDAQ dropped 22.3-46 points to finish at 41-51.2-32.
At the close, the S&P 500 was up just a fraction of a point for the year.
Citigroup tumbled 5.4 percent to $47.45 a day after the Fed rejected the bank's plan
to buy back $6.4 billion in shares and boost dividends, saying that Citi wasn't sufficiently
prepared to handle a potential financial crisis.
A source close to the matter told Reuters that Citi officials had not expected the rejection.
Big tech names also dropped, including Google off 1.6 percent at $11-14.28, Microsoft was
down 1.1 percent at $39.36, and Amazon was down 1.4 percent at $3-38.47.
Twitter's market value continues to disappear.
Simply put, it seems that investors have come to the realization that the company may not
be the next Facebook or Google after all.
Even though it seems like you can't turn on the television or go online without some promotional
hashtag hitting you in the face #March Madness.
Facebook has more than 1.2 billion active monthly users.
And that doesn't include Instagram or any new users it may acquire when the WhatsApp
purchase is complete.
Twitter has "only" 241 million active monthly users.
Google+ has more than twice as many as Twitter with 540 million.
The Stoxx Europe 600 edged up 0.1%, adding to a 2% rise in the previous two sessions.
Asian markets were mixed, with China's Shanghai Composite losing 0.8%, while Japan's Nikkei
Stock Average rose 1%.
In the foreign exchange market Economic data was mixed.
Pending home sales for February fell for an eighth-straight month versus expectations
of a slight increase.
Meanwhile, weekly jobless claims declined to a four-month low, while economists forecast
a slight rise.
And fourth-quarter gross domestic product growth was raised to 2.6% from a previous
estimate of 2.4%, just missing expectations of 2.7%.
The euro struggled near a three-week low against the dollar on Friday, weighed by recent dovish
talk from several European Central Bank (ECB) officials.
The New Zealand dollar continued its bull run, hitting a 2-1/2-year high against the
greenback and a six-year peak versus the yen.
The euro last traded at $1.37-44, having touched three-week lows of $1.37-28 overnight, on
track to end lower for a second straight week.
Against the yen, the common currency stood at 1-40.41 yen after slipping to three-week
lows of 1-40.19.
In the commodity space gold trimmed a second weekly loss as investors weighed speculation
a drop below $13 hundred an ounce will spur demand against signs of a U.S. recovery, which
may add to the case for tapering.
Platinum and palladium advanced.
Crude oil headed for a second weekly advance amid shrinking stockpiles at the U.S. oil
storage hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, and concern the crisis in Ukraine threatens supplies from
Russia.
The contract gained $1.02 to $101.28 yesterday.
This is Amy Anderson from OptionRally signing off.
And of course I'm waiting for your LIKE below if you enjoyed today's Market Watch.
Have a great weekend