It’s never a great sign when the question is not whether the market will blow its gains, but when.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped lower on Wednesday despite trading more than 200 points higher in the wake of an encouraging consumer price index reading. About half the stocks in the index were trading lower. It was recently down 82 points, or 0.2%.
The Dow’s decline highlights the market’s struggles to hold onto gains. Wall Street seems to view any pop as an excuse to sell into strength while worries about the path forward for the economy flow through markets.