Jittery Stock Market Paralyzed by Storms, Politics in Tense Week
- Some brush aside risk while others raise cash to go defensive
- As usual, insurers big losers; Home Depot, Lowe’s win out
How Fed Uncertainty and Hurricanes Are Affecting Markets
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For a week that began with a hydrogen bomb and ended with a storm that a Florida mayor warns is “nuclear,” you’d be hard pressed to tell anything was wrong from the surface of stocks.
While swings proliferated among industries and the country braced for devastation, the S&P 500 was its typical imperturbable self, closing the four-day stretch with a decline of about 0.5 percent. Traders said there was little to do but sit as the Category 4 hurricane tacked toward Florida.