Stocks Fall After Kabul Blasts

Stocks closed lower Thursday following deadly suicide attacks at the Kabul airport. The Dow fell 192 points to 35,213, the S&P 500 fell 26 points to 4,469, and the Nasdaq fell 96 points to 14,945. Despite the pullback, market indicators that traditionally signal worry on Wall Street were little changed, per the AP. Treasury yields were mixed and gold rose slightly. Before the attack, most of the market’s attention was on the Federal Reserve. The Fed’s annual two-day convention started in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Thursday. Fed Chair Jerome Powell is scheduled to speak on Friday.

The market slide was due to “traders looking to take some profits from frequent advances, pointing to the attack in Afghanistan as a reason for doing so,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA. The VIX, a measure of nervousness among stock investors, rose 13.1%, but remained slightly below 20, which signals market risk is low. Traders are betting that Fed officials will remain in a “wait and see” mode regarding inflation, since most policymakers believe any inflation earlier this year would be temporary and the rise in COVID-19 cases has worried some economists.

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