The week between Christmas and New Year's is supposed to be slow. No one expected a little war in the Middle East, which pushed oil prices up, at least for a couple of days. Toward the end of trading, billionaire Kirk Kerkorian's holding company said it had sold of its Ford (NYSE: F) shares, and that pushed the stock down 5%.
The day opened with the market reacting to Kuwait pulling out on its $17 billion joint venture with Dow Chemical (NYSE: DOW). The news hammered DOW down 20%.
The market was down most of the day but moved toward even at the close. The primary concern of traders still seems to be the poor retail sales from the holidays and whether consumer spending will stay weak well into next year. Certainly nothing happened to make traders glad they came back after a weekend off.
Today's unofficial closing numbers:
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 24/7 Wall St.
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