Bears refused to budge amid continued heavy losses throughout the bulk of trading Thursday. The sell-off came on the heels of fresh tariff threats from the Trump administration, a day after markets staged a suspect rally attempt. Traders, however, may have covered some short positions late in the stock market today as the major indexes ultimately sank in the range of 1.3% to 2%.
And the breadth of selling was heavy, as only four of Investor's Business Daily's 197 industry groups managed gains of 1% or more. The worst industry groups included cable and satellite telecom services, plummeting 9.4%; desktop software, stumbling 7.2%; retail home furnishings, down 7%; fiber-optic telecom gear, slammed 4.8%; and retail apparel, sinking 3.3%.
Stock Market Today: Precious Metals Stocks Lead Upside
After the regular session close at 4 p.m. ET, index futures rallied moderately on news reports that Chuck Schumer, leading Democrat in the U.S. Senate, would vote in favor of the new spending bill already passed by the House of Representatives to avert a federal government shutdown on Friday evening. The GOP-led funding bill keeps "the lights on" across federal offices until September.
Among the few winners of Thursday's rough session in the stock market today: gold miners, which moved higher amid the precious metal's push toward $3,000 an ounce. Gold futures for April delivery gained 1.6% and touched a session high of $2,998.50.
And later in the day, gold briefly breached the $3,000 mark, hitting $3,003.
IBD's gold and silver mining industry group ended Thursday's regular session up 2.1% on a price-weighted basis. Also up for the day: discount and retail variety, up 1.4%; coal, up 1.3%; and water supply utilities, up 1%.
A Rare Area Of Shiny Action
That bullish action among precious metals securities showed up in shares of Alamos Gold, which spearheaded a jump of nearly 2% in IBD's gold and silver mining group.
The stock rose 1.5% and notched a session high of 25.31. That's up 18% from a recent breakout from a three-month consolidation pattern with a 21.45 entry.
In general, IBD's selling strategy includes taking at least partial profits when the gain from a breakout hits the 20%-25% zone. AngloGold Ashanti rallied 2.6% in above-average trading and is back above an elongated double bottom that presented a 31.46 pivot point.
In a good double bottom, the second sell-off low must undercut the first sell-off low, even by as little as a penny. Why? The action promotes a great shakeout of uncommitted holders, sending those shares into stronger hands.
Here are a few more gold mining stocks that jammed amid the bearish action in the stock market today:
- Newmont, up 4.6%; the large cap ($51 billion market value) is trying to lumber back above the 200-day moving average.
- Gold Fields, up 2.8%; the large cap ($18.6 billion market value) is now beyond the 5% buy zone from an 18.96 buy point in a cup-without-handle.
- Barrick Gold, up 2.1%; the large cap ($33 billion) has sculpted a 19.16 handle within a cup base, yet still lies 12% below the cup pattern's left-hand peak. This means Barrick could still need some basing work before potentially breaking out.
In terms of general market breadth, falling stocks outmatched rising ones by a 5-2 ratio on the New York Stock Exchange and a more than 3-1 margin on the Nasdaq.
Big Picture: Silver Jumps Sharply In 2025
Nasdaq Gives Back Ground
The Nasdaq rebounded the most among key benchmarks during Wednesday's choppy day, but surrendered 2% to 17,303 on Thursday after being down 2.3% at one point. At Thursday's session low of 17,239, the tech-weighted composite has now fallen 10.7% since Jan. 1. The tech-heavy index rallied 28.6% last year and 43% in 2023 after suffering a bear market in 2022 amid an intense monetary tightening campaign by the Federal Reserve that year.
Going back to today, the Nasdaq's decline from its 20,204 all-time peak has expanded to 14.7%. Put another way, tech stocks are clearly in an intermediate-level correction.
The S&P 500 dropped 1.4% on Thursday to 5,521. At the session low of 5,504, the large cap index has corrected 10.4% from its all-time high of 6,147. The 500 rose 24% in 2023, excluding dividends, and added 23.3% last year.
A decline of 10% to 19% is often designated as an intermediate-level correction. The Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight exchange traded fund notched its fourth straight decline, down almost 1%. Volume edged 2% above normal as the ETF logged a fourth-straight down day and dove further beneath its 200-day moving average, a sign of technical weakness.
RSP also posted its lowest daily close since Aug. 14.
Stock Market Today: Goldman Sachs Leads Banks Lower
Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.3% on a price-weighted basis. Blue chips ended the day 537 points lower and the popular index notched its seventh drop in nine trading sessions.
Goldman Sachs, Salesforce and Home Depot were among seven Dow stocks that fell 2 percentage points or more.
Goldman Sachs is trading just beneath its key long-term technical level, the 200-day moving average. A further drop would spark a profit-taking sell rule. GS has fallen more than 22% below its 672.19 peak.
Sherwin-Williams, new member of the Dow industrials, slid 2.2% to 342.10 in above-average trade and is challenging support at its own 200-day line. Sherwin-Williams, noted as a member of the 100,000% return club in the new book "The Sacred Truths of Investing" cowritten by veteran growth fund manager Louis Navellier and David Evanson, is still up about 1% in 2025.
Elsewhere, small caps initially fought into positive ground but succumbed to the same losses as large caps. The Russell 2000 closed 1.6% lower.
Volume fell 7% vs. Wednesday on the Nasdaq and ended nearly 4% lower on the New York Stock Exchange.
The yield on the key U.S. Treasury 10-year bond fell four basis points to 4.27%. The benchmark bond began 2025 at 4.57%. According to CME Fed Watch, a survey of bond traders, the probability of the Federal Reserve cutting the fed funds short-term interest rate by at least 75 basis points from the current target range of 4.25%-4.5% to a range of 3.5%-3.75% has now lifted to 56%.
A month ago, that probability was less than 10%.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures dropped 1.6%.
This Gold Play Is In The Leaderboard Model Stock Portfolio Now
What Investors Need To Know In A Down Market
Since March 3, IBD has placed the suggested investment exposure level in index exchange traded funds for active traders at zero and in growth stocks at the lowest possible range of 0% to 20%.
Please read this March 3 The Big Picture column for more details on the reasons behind the downward revision in exposure from the previous range of 20%-40%.
As noted in Wednesday's IBD podcast, bullishness among newsletter writers has now fallen below the ratio of bearishness in the Investors Intelligence bulls vs. bears survey. In recent years, this unusually high level of investor pessimism presaged a stock market bottom. Yet readings on market psychology should always be treated as secondary market indicators.
Dow Jones Component Drops Again
Dow component Home Depot slumped for a sixth day in a row, and its decline has definitely decelerated. Shares fell 4.2% to 347.25, a seven-month low.
The home improvement chain is forcing recent buyers to cut losses short after the Dow industrials component undercut its 200-day moving average on March 7 and failed to find buying support.
The U.S. has initiated 25% tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum imports, which might result in higher prices for a variety of items sold at Home Depot stores. The possibility of tariffs on wood products might also be creating additional angst for investors.
After a solid run-up, a big drop through the 200-day line often serves as a sell signal. As seen in Home Depot shares during 2022, once a stock has broken through this long-term moving average, it can go into a long digestion phase before bottoming out and setting up a new rally.
Nasdaq's Equal-Weighted Picture
Equal-weighted stock indexes also traded mixed on Wednesday before losing their footing on Thursday. First Trust Nasdaq 100 Equal Weight got hammered with a 1.5% drop and marked a fresh seven-month low. QQEW is now down 4% year to date.
Before the open, producer prices in the U.S. came in flat in February vs. the prior month, below the Econoday estimate of 0.3% growth. However, January wholesale inflation got revised to a 0.6% rise from 0.3%. Year over year, wholesale prices increased 3.2%, below views for a 3.4% rise.
Meanwhile, weekly jobless claims came in at 220,000, below the consensus forecast of 230,000.
The four-week moving average of jobless claims ticked up to 226,000 from an upwardly revised figure of 224,500. Economists are closely watching the future path of continued jobless claims, which would give a clearer picture of how boiling trade tensions between the U.S. and major trading partners could impact the labor market.
IBD Tech News: Why Adobe Dropped 11% On Earnings
Stock Market Today: Meta Stock Slammed Again
Meta Platforms continued its correction. Shares of the Facebook parent sank 4.7% to 590.64 to halt a two-day winning streak.
On March 4, the social media titan triggered a round-trip sell rule by giving back all of a double-digit gain from a recent breakout at 638.40. At one point, investors who bought at that breakout held a tidy 16% profit. Plus, Meta sank sharply below the 50-day moving average, a negative change in character.
Meta's Relative Strength Rating is solid at 88, yet this covers 12 months of price action vs. all other companies in the IBD database. The 3-month RS Rating is much weaker at 48 on a scale of 1 to 99. This means since mid-January, META has outperformed only 48% of all companies.
Find the 3- and 6-month Relative Strength score in the Related Information panel on the righthand chart of each stock at MarketSurge.
IBD News: What A Cheaper Tesla Might Look Like
Intel Rebounds
Intel soared nearly 15% on Thursday and rushed to an intraday high of 24.53 after naming Lip-Bu Tan as its new chief executive. Tan was formerly chairman at Cadence Design Systems.
A laggard within the semiconductor manufacturing industry group, Intel is struggling to rise back above its 200-day line and break a long downtrend. It is nowhere near what Investor's Business Daily would call a buy point. Cadence, a member of IBD Long-Term Leaders, was up as well.
Intel holds a 23 RS Rating on a 12-month basis, but the 3-month RS score is better at 55.
In the MarketSurge Growth 250, Astronics deserves notice. The supplier of lighting and testing equipment for the aerospace and military markets eased just 0.2% to 24.23 on the stock market today. The small cap, with an $854 million market value, remains above the top of a cup base with a 23.74 standard buy point.
Last week, shares vaulted on a solid fourth-quarter report. Earnings soared 153% to 48 cents a share on a 7% gain in sales to $208.5 million.
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Tariff Watch 2025: Trump Threatens 200% Duties
In economic news, President Donald Trump reportedly threatened to slap tariffs of up to 200% on wine and spirits from Europe. The potential higher prices might conflict directly with the latest data that indicate inflation in the U.S. is not accelerating. The euro zone has decided to impose a 50% tax on imported American bourbon whiskey.
Not surprisingly, Europe-based alcohol makers fell in unison.
LVMH, seller of Moet Champagne and Hennessy cognac in addition to Louis Vuitton luxury goods, lost 2.8% to 129.76. Shares slumped further below the descending 200-day moving average. The French manufacturing giant has lost all of its early 2025 gains and shows a subpar 30 Relative Strength Rating.
LVMH, listed on the over-the-counter stock market, also trades 35% below its 2023 peak of 200.76. Another French spirits producer, Pernod Ricard, slid more than 4% in heavy trading.
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