Those expecting the bullish Dow market to keep climbing may have been surprised a little by the first quarter of 2007. The Dow ended the first quarter down 0.9%. Marketwatch notes that this was the Dow's first quarterly decline since the second quarter of 2005.
For the quarter, the blue-chip average sits on a loss of 0.9%, its first quarterly decline since the second quarter of 2005.
The Dow first rose by over 65 points in morning trade Friday, before falling by over 100 points and then recovering some ground in the afternoon.
"Near-term, there are too many uncertainties," said Owen Fitzpatrick, head of the U.S. equity group at Deutsche Bank. "There are a lot of issues that aren't resolved about the housing market, subprime mortgages and geopolitical tensions."
Stocks have been rocked since late February amid mounting concerns that a meltdown in the subprime mortgage market will spread, restricting lending, cramping consumption and further weakening a slowing U.S. economy.
"The market is going to be in choppy waters, at least for the next couple of months," said Fitzpatrick. Next week, the market will be on the lookout for negative announcements from companies forced to ratchet down earnings outlooks, "given the weakness that we've already seen in the economy," he said.
The Nasdaq faired much better and had a 0.3% increase during the first quarter.
