The US markets ended deeply in red on Wednesday on ongoing concerns about the economic outlook and the possibility of higher interest rates leading to a recession. Traders were also looking ahead to next week's closely watched monthly jobs report, which could shed additional light on the outlook for interest rates and the economy. On the Sectoral front, tobacco stocks moved sharply lower over the course of the session, resulting in a 3.3 percent nosedive by the NYSE Arca Tobacco Index. Significant weakness was also visible among gold stocks, as reflected by the 3.2 percent slump by the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index. The weakness among gold stocks came amid a decrease by the price of the precious metal, with gold for February delivery falling $7.30 to $1,815.80 an ounce.
On the economic data front, a report released by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) unexpectedly showed a continued slump in U.S. pending home sales in the month of November. NAR said its pending home sales index tumbled by 4.0 percent to 73.9 in November after plunging by 4.7 percent to a revised 77.0 in October. The extended nosedive came as a surprise to participants, who had expected pending home sales to increase by 0.6 percent. Pending home sales slid for the sixth consecutive month and are now down by 37.8 percent compared to the same month a year ago. A pending home sale is one in which a contract was signed but not yet closed. Normally, it takes four to six weeks to close a contracted sale.
Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 365.85 points or 1.1 percent to 32,875.71, Nasdaq fell 139.94 points or 1.35 percent to 10,213.29 and S&P 500 was down by 46.03 points or 1.2 percent to 3,783.22.
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