Wall Street rocked between gains and losses on Tuesday and ultimately ended March 2020 on the decline. Stocks have been swinging wildly over the past several weeks, leading the Dow Jones Industrial Average to record its worst month since 2008 and its worst quarter ever. The S&P 500 Index also posted its worst month since the 2008 financial crisis.
Here's how the market settled to end the month:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): -1.6% or -42.06 points to 2,584.59
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): -1.84% or -410.32 points to 21,917.16
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): -0.95% or -74.05 points to 7,700.1
In Major Stock News, shares of the pharmaceutical company Amarin (NASDAQ: AMRN) nosedived on Tuesday after a Nevada court ruled in favor of Hikma Pharmaceuticals (OTC: HKMPF) and Dr. Reddy's Laboratories (NYSE: RDY) on a patent case involving Amarin's fish oil drug Vascepa. Oil exploration and production companies--Devon Energy (NYSE: DVN), Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ: FANG), Noble Energy (NASDAQ: NBL)-- shares increased as crude oil prices jumped on Tuesday after following to 18-year lows. Both Dollar Tree (NASDAQ: DLTR) and Domino's Pizza (NYSE: DPZ) withdrew their 2020 guidance, leading to their stock shares dropping.
In Stock Sector News, every sector except Energy, who gained +1.63%, posted performance losses from Tuesday's market lows. The losses were as follows: Utilities -4.02%, Real Estate -3.26%, Financials -2.99%, Consumer Staples -1.96%, Information Technology -1.89%, Consumer Discretionary -1.78%, Materials -1.43%, Industrials -1.27%, Communication Services -0.52% and Health Care -0.39%.
In Commodity and Currency News, crude oil's over 65% price drop marks the commodity's worst quarter ever as both the pandemic and global price war work to lower prices. For Tuesday, West Texas Intermediate (NYSE: USO) fell -0.54% and Brent Crude (NYSE: BNO) remained unchanged. Gold (NYSE: GLD) also declined, with the metal's ounce price dropping -3.26% in the latest sell-off from investors. Finally, the U.S. Dollar (NYSE: UUP) also lost some relative strength on Tuesday, with the DXY Index falling -0.11%.