The U.S. Markets were closed Monday, commemorating Presidents Day; however, the break from trading didn’t stop indices from sliding into red territory on Tuesday, marking the first declines for the indices since they entered correction territory on Feb. 8. The decline continued Wednesday as concerns about higher interest rates resurfaced with the release of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting minutes from the January meeting. The Fed minutes showed the central bank plans to keep gradually raising short-term interest rates throughout 2018. The day’s losses were broad, across all 11 sectors of the S&P, while bond rates saw a fresh four-year high. In housing news, existing-home sales dipped in January, with sales falling 3.2% from December and were down by 4.8% from January 2017. Early signs showed the major indices would snap a two-day losing streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed with a gain of 0.66%, while the S&P 500 rose 0.11%. The tech-laden NASDAQ Composite Index closed down about 0.1%. The weekly jobless claims fell 7,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 222,000. This brought the four-week moving average down to 223,750. Indices finally closed with gains on Friday, as Technology sector stocks led the way up. Gains were led by the NASDAQ, but the broad-based S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average also enjoyed the accelerated rally in the final hours, pushing them into positive territory for the week.
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