09 September, 2017
Some Americans plan to deal with Hurricane Irma in the most stereotypical way possible - by shooting at it.
U.S. stocks opened lower today as investors assessed the financial impact of Hurricane Harvey and as Hurricane Irma heads towards Florida.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was higher, helped by a rise in financial stocks as U.S. Treasury yields rebounded from 10-months lows.
The S&P decreased three points to end trading at 2,461 on a weekly loss of 0.6 percent.
Tropical storm force winds are likely to start lashing the state around 8 a.m. or earlier on Saturday morning-and once the storm itself arrives, hurricane force winds could pummel areas of south Florida for up to 12 hours.
"Overall, we are seeing the market and investors sort of hunker down to see what the damage and destruction turns out to be", she said.
The Nasdaq lost 37 points to close the day at 6,360, and posted a 1.2 percent slide for the week. Shares of Apple were down 1.6 percent while shares of Facebook fell 1.3 percent.
Hurricane Irma is due to hit Florida on Saturday, and the state is now experiencing the largest ever mass evacuation due to a hurricane in American history.
Six of the 11 major S&P indexes were lower, with the teleservices and energy sectors leading the decliners.
"Third-quarter GDP could be impacted by the hurricanes", said Stephen Wood, chief market strategist at Russell Investments in NY. Global benchmark Brent crude was at $53.73 - down 1.4 percent.
Equifax sank 16.44 per cent, the biggest percentage loser on the S&P, after the provider of consumer credit scores said personal details of as many as 143 million USA consumers were hacked.
"This is our home, nobody drives us out of our own territory".
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.19-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.01-to-1 ratio favoured advancers.
