Market Recap: Markets Subdued By Fitch Downgrades

Markets closed mixed on Wall Street today:

 

• Dow -0.02 percent

 

• S&P +0.32 percent

 

•  Nasdaq +0.56 percent

 

• Oil +0.11 percent

 

• Gold +1.44 percent

On the commodities front:

 

•  Oil (NYSE:USO) climbed slightly to $93.97 a barrel

 

• Gold (NYSE:GLD) up to $1,599.90 an ounce

 

• Silver (NYSE:SLV) climbed 1.35 percent to settle at $29.67

(Related: Static Consumer Prices Signal Cooling Inflation)

Today’s markets were mixed because:

1) Fitch: A midday sell-off came after Fitch Ratings put seven European countries on creditwatch negative, citing a higher probability that it could downgrade Belgium, Spain, Slovenia, Italy, Ireland, or Cyprus in the next few months.

Markets forfeited a good share of their earlier gains, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 falling off session highs upwards of 1 percent. Still, investors breathed a sigh of relief that France was not on that list, and the euro zone’s second-largest economy (next to Germany’s) would at least for now retain its pristine AAA rating.

2) Banks: After markets closed on Thursday, Fitch downgraded seven major banks, including Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Barclays, Societe Generale, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank , and Credit Suisse. While the financial sector was mixed, all of the downgraded lenders were trading in the red today.

3) Zynga: Shares of Zynga rose 10 percent in their public debut on the Nasdaq today before falling to close the day down 5 percent off its initial share price of $10. The less-than-stellar debut of the biggest tech IPO since Google raised $1.9 billion in 2004 does not bode well for markets.

[Editor’s note: the above is a cross post that originally appeared on Wall St. Cheat Sheet.]