A steep fall in oil prices and fresh concerns about China sent stocks lower Wednesday, extending the shaky start to the year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 252 points, or 1.5%, to 16907. Stocks extended losses as oil prices careened lower, hitting shares of energy companies.
Crude fell 5.6% to $33.97 a barrel, settling at its lowest level since December 2008. Energy stocks in the S&P 500 tumbled 3.6%. Ouch. Looks like liquidation to me.
Down 43% from its June 2014 peak, (XLE) fetched a similar price as recently as October 2011 and is some 50% above its recession low. The way things are going I would be surprised at all to see XLE test 2009 lows.
I’m happy that we’ve been able to navigate this market well over the last couple of months. People are getting decapitated left and right, but we’ve done very well.
We may be getting close to a counter-trend rally at any point, so I pared back some shorts a bit today and took some nice profits.
Have a great night, see you tomorrow.