<p>US equities were hit hard today and the S&P 500 virtually erased its gains for the year in the second day of selling. Stocks tried to rally early on a higher US unemployment rate but worries about banks led to heavy selling in the latter half of the day as Silicon Valley Bank was taken over by the FDIC.</p><p>There was a big divergence in US indexes as the Russell 2000 was clobbered by heavy exposure to regional banks:</p><p>Daily changes:</p><ul><li>S&P 500 -1.45%</li><li>Nasdaq Comp -1.7%</li><li>DJIA -1.1%</li><li>Russell 2000 -3.0%</li><li>Toronto TSX -1.6%</li></ul><p>Weekly changes:</p><ul><li>S&P 500 -4.5%</li><li>Nasdaq Comp -4.7%</li><li>DJIA -4.4%</li><li>Russell 2000 -8.1%</li><li>Toronto TSX -3.9%</li></ul><p>The weekly chart of the S&P 500 still doesn’t look too bad but it will need to hold the late-December lows. Tuesday’s CPI report will go a long way towards determining which way it breaks.</p><ul><li>S&P 500 -1.1%</li><li>Nasdaq Comp -2.4%</li><li>Russell 2000 -3.4%</li><li>Toronto TSX -0.7</li></ul>
This article was written by Adam Button at www.forexlive.com.