US stocks down showing signs of market volatility

U.S. stocks have dropped today with a surge of investors selling on the last day of the quarter.

The dip was fueled by major selloffs as lackluster U.S. data was released and traders began re-positioning themselves for year-end trading.

The Conference Board stated that in September consumer confidence fell to 86.0, from 93.4 in August (revised up from 92.4).

At the end of the trading day all major US stock indexes took a hit, with the Dow dropping by 0.17%, the NASDAQ Composite index declining by 0.28%, the New York Stock Exchange Composite Index falling by 0.43%, and the S&P 500 index going down by 0.28%.

Major companies that took the biggest hits on Tuesday include, McDonald’s Corporation, which went down by 1.47%, Boeing Company, falling by 1.05%, Home Depot Inc, declining by 1.20%, Chevron Corp down by 1.02%, and Procter & Gamble Co dropping by 0.83%.

The Volatility S&P 500 index, measuring the outlook of market volatility, increased by 2.07% up to 16.31.

European markets performed better, with France’s CAC 40 rising by 1.33%, Germany’s DAX increasing 0.55%, the DJ Euro Stoxx 50 up by 1.42%. However, the U.K. the FTSE 100 dropped by 0.36%.

Tomorrow the US will release the ADP report on job creation in the private sector and later this week data on nonfarm payrolls will be reported too.