Persistent selling throughout yesterday’s session fueled a steady intraday downtrend that caused several of the broad-based stock indexes to break key technical support levels. After gapping lower on the open, the equities markets headed south and never looked back. The Nasdaq Composite tumbled 2.3%, the S&P 500 1.5%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average 1.3%. The small-cap Russell 2000 fell 2.0%, as the S&P Midcap 400 lost 1.7%. Like the previous day, all of the major indices closed at their intraday lows. Higher volume accompanied yesterday’s sell-off, causing both the […]

BRIEFING.COM] The stock market made an effort Monday to extend last week’s big gains. It scored some success early on, but buyers eventually backed off and the major indices closed the session with modest losses.The technology sector (+0.3%) provided the early leadership. Brokerage upgrades of Motorola (MOT 18.05, +0.16) and EMC Corp. (EMC 20.51, +1.48), and the outperformance of Microsoft (MSFT 29.08, +0.43) ahead of tonight’s release of the popular “Halo 3″ videogame and amid media reports that it is interested in taking a stake in social-networking startup Facebook, helped […]