The Dow Jones Industrial Average
The biggest losers
With the lowered outlook out of China, Dow cyclicals took the hardest hit. Alcoa
Chevron also had a day to forget, falling 2.37% as Brazil filed criminal charges against the company as well as Transocean
Now for the good news ...
More promising numbers came out of the Labor Department as the number of job seekers filing for unemployment benefits hit a four-year low of 348,000 in the week ended March 17. The moving four-week average also hit its lowest point since 2008, suggesting that the robust job growth of the previous months has continued through March.
Of particular interest to investors, Congress passed a scaled-down version of the STOCK Act, a bill that prevents insider trading by members of Congress in specific ways that enhance insider trading laws. The limited version of the bill eliminated, among other things, a line item that would have required individuals involved in the "political intelligence" industry, which involves selling information on potential future policy to investment firms, to register with Congress as lobbyists do. Two lawmakers introduced a separate bill in February to address that concern. GE
Finally, oil prices fell almost 2% on the news out of China to their lowest level in a week, offering drivers some relief at the pump. President Obama, speaking at the oil hub in Cushing, Okla., underscored his support for all forms of energy and called for permits to be expedited so TransCanada could build the southern extension of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would connect Cushing with Gulf coast refineries. In January, the president rejected the northern part of the pipeline, connecting Alberta's oil sands to Cushing, in a move many saw as politically motivated.
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