Market Recap: Markets Down on Durable Goods Data

Markets closed down today:

▼ Dow: -0.54 percent

▼ Nasdaq: -0.49 percent

▼ S&P: -0.49 percent

Precious metals:

▼ Gold: (NYSE:GLD) down to $1,661.95 an ounce

▼ Silver: (NYSE:SLV) down -1.38 percent to settle at $31.98

Commodities:

▼ Oil: -1.28 percent

Today’s markets were down because (via T3Live.com):

Stocks dropped for the second consecutive day Wednesday as we approach the end of what has been a historically strong first quarter. Weaker than expected durable goods data before the open weighed in the futures. The indices drifted lower for most of the day until bouncing back in the last 90 minutes of the trading day, all finished down around 0.5%.

Apple: Apple had a sharp drop just before 11 a.m. ET, dragging the market down with it, but recovered to finished positive on the day. The world's most valuable company continues to charge higher without any major pull-ins, and today's resilience was the latest example. Today was the first day fund managers could sell the stock while still counting it on their first quarter ledgers, but there was apparently no rush to sell Apple even after such a big run.

Energy and industrials were the weakest sectors on the, with Caterpillar the biggest loser in the Dow, dropping 3.5%. Recent IPO Yelp! was up as much as 15% at one point during the day (and 38% in the last three), but pared those intraday gains to finish the day only 1.5% higher.

[Today's recap is brought to you by minyanville/T3Live.com.]