Market Update (9/17)

Markets turned red during a volatile Thursday trading session with tech leaders Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), and Facebook (FB) extending previous sessions declines. Investors were not inspired by the freshly released unemployment claims despite staying below the one-million mark for the third straight week. This mornings report pegged new claims at 860,000. A sharp drop off in new housing starts also spooked investor confidence. All three major indexes closed lower.

The $DJI lost 0.47% to 27,901.98. The NASDAQ Composite closed lower to 10,910.28, down 1.27%. The S&P 500 also lost ground by 0.84% to 3357.01. The Russell 2000 closed lower by 0.60% to 1542.96.

The Prism MarketView family of indexes closed mixed. The PRISM Emerging Gene Therapy index closed slightly higher by 0.01%. The PRISM Emerging MedCannabis index was lower by 1.4% on the day. The PRISM Emerging MedDevices index fell by 1.0%.

Other PRISM indexes closed mixed for the day. The PRISM Emerging MedDiagnostics index gained 0.2%. The PRISM Emerging New Economy index closed lower by 0.6%, and the PRISM Emerging Pet Care & AgriBiz index closed higher by 0.6% in value. The biotech heavy PRISM Emerging Vaccines & Cell Therapy index closed lower 4.0%.

The top commodities closed mixed at the 4:00pm ET mark. Crude Oil moved higher to $41.07 per barrel, Gold lost 0.76% and is trading at $1955.60 per oz., and Silver is trending lower to $27.31oz.. Bitcoin ($BTC) is trading back below the $11,000 level, currently trading at $10,940.15 as of 4pm est. Despite the selloff, the Vix, often referred to as the fear gauge, closed only modestly higher to end at $26.32.

*data as of market close at 4pm est on 9/17/20