Stocks attempted to right themselves on Thursday after two days of losses, with only partial success. The Dow fell 66 points to 34,894, while the S&P 500 ticked up 5 points to 4,405, and the Nasdaq rose 15 points to 14,541. It was a choppy trading day in general, especially in the S&P 500, as investors struggled to gauge the pace of the recovery and how it will benefit different sectors of the economy, per the AP. “One of the challenges right now is we’re getting some degree of a mixed message about what is working and what’s not,” said Eric Freedman, chief investment officer at US Bank Wealth Management.
The market first has to gauge the near-term prospects for the economy as COVID-19 remains a threat, Freedman said. At the same time, investors have to also focus on what the economy looks like after the virus recedes or when the world learns to live with the virus in a different way. “There's going to be a lot of fits and starts,” he said. Commodities prices fell broadly, with everything from oil to agricultural commodities to metals moving lower. Copper prices fell 1.9%, while the price of US crude oil closed 2.7% lower. The drop in commodities prices dragged down oil companies and those who extract raw materials for industrial uses. Miner Freeport-McMoRan, Devon Energy, and Occidental Petroleum fell 5% or more.
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