"There is concern over Trump being unexpected, because the market has really priced in a Clinton win and it hasn’t priced in a Trump win at all," said Ken Polcari, director of the NYSE floor division at O’Neil Securities in New York.The selloff in equities comes as the Federal Reserve holds its two-day policy meeting, with its statement due on Wednesday. While traders do not expect the central bank to raise interest rates just a week ahead of the presidential election, they are looking for signs confirming that the Fed is set to hike rates in December.Real estate , telecommunications and utilities stocks - sectors that tend to perform poorly in rising rate environments - sold off especially sharply. "It’s really hitting the dividend-yielding names harder than anything else...," said Stephen Massocca, chief investment officer at Wedbush Equity Management LLC in San Francisco. "I don’t know if there is a new 'taper tantrum' sort of building here on concerns the Fed will act in December and the whole low interest rate environment is about to change. Gannett fell 2.3 percent.U.S.-listed shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals soared 33.7 percent after a report that the drugmaker is in talks to sell its stomach-drug business.Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 3.21-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.29-to-1 ratio favored decliners.The S&P 500 posted 5 new 52-week highs and 11 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 30 new highs and 152 new lows.

Source: The Star November 01, 2016 19:39 UTC