- Title: Wall Street falls ahead of inauguration
- Date: 19th January 2017
- Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JANUARY 19, 2017) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) KEVIN MAHN, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER, HENNION AND WALSH, SAYING: "I think once we get past these first 100 days and we start to see some meaningful movement - whether it's related to infrastructure, whether it is related to health care, whether it is related to something around the corporate tax code - I think you could see the next leg up in this bull market."
- Embargoed: 2nd February 2017 21:16
- Keywords: Kevin Mahn markets stocks trading economy Trump inaugeration
- Location: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
- City: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Economic Events,Equities Markets
- Reuters ID: LVA0025ZR0LN1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: U.S. stocks fell on Thursday (January 19), continuing to pull back from the post-election rally, on investor caution ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration as president on Friday.
The Dow fell for a fifth straight day, its longest losing streak since just before the Nov. 8 U.S. election.
Still, Trump's swearing-in will mark one of the best performances for stocks for any presidential transition period of modern times. The S&P 500 is up 5.8 percent since the vote.
And though the S&P 500 sank 5.3 percent on President Barack Obama's inauguration day and tumbled 20.4 percent during the first 34 trading days of his administration, bottoming on March 9, 2009, the index has nearly tripled in price off that low. Including reinvested dividends, it has delivered a total return of nearly 295 percent.
That is the second-best run for the stock market under any president since Dwight Eisenhower.
The rally in stocks since Trump's election has slowed in recent weeks as investors look for more details on his policies.
"I think once we get past these first 100 days and we start to see some meaningful movement - whether it's related to infrastructure, whether it is related to health care, whether it is related to something around the corporate tax code - I think you could see the next leg up in this bull market," said Kevin Mahn, chief investment officer at Hennion and Walsh.
Traders in the options market have grown increasingly cautious and have been loading up on defensive contracts, even as overall levels of stock market volatility are close to record lows.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 72.32 points, or 0.37 percent, to 19,732.4, the S&P 500 lost 8.2 points, or 0.4 percent, to 2,263.69 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 15.57 points, or 0.28 percent, to 5,540.08.
While S&P 500 utilities, real estate and energy led sector losses, S&P financials weighed the most on the market, falling 0.6 percent.
The financial index, which rallied sharply following the election on Trump's promises of reduced regulations and expectations of higher interest rates, is now down 1 percent since the start of the year.
Rail shares were among the day's big gainers. Railroad CSX jumped 23.4 percent after a source said CP Rail CEO Hunter Harrison, who steps down on Jan. 31, is in advanced talks to team up with a former Pershing Square Capital partner to shake up CSX.
Union Pacific was up 2.4 percent after a better-than-expected quarterly net profit. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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