Morning Report 1 May 20: US sharemarkets fell on Thursday

Investors engaged in end month profit-taking and responded to earnings results. In response to earnings, shares in Facebook rose 5.4%, McDonalds lost 0.1% and American Airlines fell 4.9%. The Dow Jones index fell by 288 points or 1.2%. The S&P500 index fell by 0.9% and the Nasdaq index lost 25 points or 0.3%. The Dow and S&P 500 indexes posted the strongest monthly gains since January 1987. Over April the Dow rose 11.1%, S&P 500 rose 12.7% and Nasdaq rose 15.5%.

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