Markets Decline As Traders Weigh The Yield Curve
STOCKS CAN'T SHAKE the post-Christmas blues.</br></br>In listless holiday-season trading, investors appeared to give up hopes for a year-end rally. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished yesterday virtually unchanged for 2005, down 11.44 points, or 0.11%, at 10784.82. With one trading day left in the year, the industrials were just an eyelash above last year's close of 10783.01, in danger of sinking into the red after two years of gains.</br></br>Trading volume was among the year's lightest. Other major indexes also fell, putting them slightly ahead for the year.</br></br>The day's news was downbeat.</br></br>The bond market again "inverted," meaning that yields of two-year Treasury notes moved higher than those of 10-year notes. Normally, investors demand higher yields for longer-term investments. Some investors worry that the inversion could signal recession to come, while others say it just means a mild decline in the growth rate. The yield of the two-year note finished at 4.381%, and that of the 10-year note was 4.368%.