The Arms Index, which is a volume-weighted breadth measure, suggests there is no panic in the stock market’s selloff on Thursday in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and there may even be some opportunistic buying. The Arms Index tends to rise above zero during market selloffs, as declining stocks tend to see proportionally more volume than advancing stocks, with readings of 2.000 and above suggesting panic-like behavior. But in midday trading Thursday, the Arms Index is below zero, at 0.970 for the NYSE and at 0.811 for the Nasdaq. The number of declining stocks is outnumbering advancers by about 3.0 to 1 on the Big Board and by about 2.3 to 1 on the Nasdaq, while the volume of declining stocks is outnumbering advancing volume by about 2.9 to 1 on the NYSE and by only about 1.8 to 1 on the Nasdaq. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.4%, after being down as much as 3.4% at its intraday low. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped 667 points, but pared earlier losses of as much as 859 points earlier, while the S&P 500 shed 1.2% to pare earlier losses of as much as 2.6%.
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