Stocks rally, wobble, then end lower as turbulence continues

It was another shaky day on Wall Street as indexes rallied in the morning, bobbed up and down for much of the day, then sank in the last few minutes of trading.

Stocks were coming off a big gain on Tuesday. At times investors looked ready to jump back in after steep losses Friday and Monday, yet every gain the market made was met with more selling. About 20 minutes before the close of trading the Dow Jones industrial average was up more than 260 points, but it finished with a small loss.

President Donald Trump broke his silence on the stock market, tweeting Wednesday morning: “In the ‘old days,’ when good news was reported, the Stock Market would go up. Today, when good news is reported, the Stock Market goes down. Big mistake, and we have so much good (great) news about the economy!”

The government reported Friday that the economy created 200,000 jobs in January and that wages grew at the fastest pace in eight years. Higher wages are good for the economy, but higher pay to workers can reduce corporate profits, and those profits are the stock market’s fuel, noted Invesco chief global markets strategist Kristina Hooper. And while higher pay affects company profits quickly, it can take a long time for workers to start spending more money after they get a raise.

While markets were noticeably calmer on Wednesday, there are signs that investors are still far more nervous than they were just a few days ago. The VIX, which is called Wall Street’s “fear gauge” because it measures how much volatility investors expect in the future, is currently at 27, more than double where it was two weeks ago. It spiked above 50 early Tuesday.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 0.5 percent, to 2,681.66. The Dow slid 19.42 points, or 0.1 percent, to 24,893.35. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.9 percent, to 7,051.98. Smaller companies fared better than the rest of the market, and more stocks rose than fell on the New York Stock Exchange.

While investors may still be uncertain about where stocks are going, they’re not rushing for cover in ultra-safe investments like bonds. Bond prices fell, sending yields higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, a benchmark for mortgages and other kinds of loans, rose to 2.84 percent from 2.81 percent.