Industrial stocks climb while financial stocks fall

While both the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) and S&P 500 dropped by the end of the day, there were reasons for a little optimism on Wednesday, especially for investors in the industrial sector. Financial sector investors? Eh, not so much.

The Dow Jones had a streak of consecutive days trading at a loss extend to four today as the average dropped by .4% before closing at 15,334.59. The S&P 500 didn’t do much better, dropping by .3% to stop at 1,697.42. The S&P 500, like the Dow Jones, has also dropped for four straight days.

There’s a lot going on to keep investors from feeling very confident right now. For instance, the Fed decided last week not to change the level of bond purchases, which took many investors by surprise. The level of caution has only increased since then.

What else? Well, there’s a possible US government shutdown looming for October 1, which certainly will do no favors for stock values. All in all, things aren’t looking to good when it comes to outside of the market factors that help determine value.

Don’t tell industrial stocks that, though. The sector gained by .4% today, even though none of the standouts managed a full percentage point of growth. Still, General Electric Company (GE), Honeywell International Inc. (HON), Caterpillar Inc. (CAT), and Cummins Inc. (CMI) were all up today. The biggest standout was United Technologies Corporation (UTX), which led the way with a .5% gain.

Meanwhile, the financial sector was not doing so well, dropping by .6% today. The least valuable player, if you will, was JP Morgan Chase & Co (JPM), which dropped by 2.2%. Wells Fargo & Co (WFC) and Citigroup Inc (C) dropped by over a percentage point each at 1.4% and 1.2%, respectively. Seeing less of a drop but still moving in the wrong direction were Bank of America Corp (BAC; .4%) and PNC Financial Services (PNC; .3%).