Stiff selling on heavy volume came as the dollar spiked against foreign currencies and financials faltered. Stocks now head into Friday with a week-to-date loss of nearly 1%. On the session the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 132 points to close at 10,308, while the S&P 500 Index closed down 13 points at 1,096. The technology laden NASDAQ lost 26 points to close at 2,180. So far this week the dollar made its way to a 1.1% gain against competing currencies.
Support for the greenback had the Dollar Index up as much as 1.4%, which put it at a new three-month high. The dollar strength pressured both stocks and commodities. The materials sector was the biggest loser on the session as it settled with a loss of 2.3%. Additionally financials faltered on news that Citigroup priced shares in its previously announced common stock offering at $3.15 each, a near 9% discount to the previous session's closing price. The lower than expected pricing kept the Treasury from unloading its $5 billion of shares in the company. Financials, which make up 14% of the stock market's weight, fell 1.8%.
FedEx Corp. also left investors uninspired with its latest quarterly results. The global shipment company brought in earnings of $1.10 per share, which matched its preannouncement, but topped the consensus of $1.06 per share. However, FedEx expects third quarter earnings to range from $0.50 to $0.70 per share, which is shy of the current consensus of $0.84 per share. It also stated it expects earnings for fiscal 2010 to range from $3.45 to $3.75 per share, which brackets the current consensus of $3.46 per share.
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