Stock Investors Spooked By Sequestration Fears

Sequestration starts at midnight and bites U.S. stock market into the close

Sequestration spending cuts are scheduled to start at midnight Thursday, and, after having been ignored for most of the week by U.S. investors, moved to the front burner with a steep sell off into market close on Thursday, February 28th.

For the day, major U.S. stock indexes closed with small losses after having been higher through most of the day.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSEARCA:DIA) fell 0.15%, the S&P 500 (NYSEARCA:SPY) dropped 0.09%, the Nasdaq 100 (NYSEARCA:QQQ) slid 0.10% and the Russell 2000 (NYSEARCA:IWM) was the lone winner with a gain of 0.13%.

In other major markets, gold (NYSEARCA:GLD) lost 1.0% and oil (NYSEARCA:USO) finished mostly flat with a decline of -0.01%…