Thursday Afternoon Cheat Sheet: 3 Stories that Moved Markets

The U.S. markets struggled for gains early on Thursday morning, but tripped over negative economic indicators and several weak earnings reports to close down across the board.

At the close: DJIA: -0.36%, S&P 500: -0.26%, NASDAQ: -0.01%.

Here are three stories that moved markets today:

Breaking news: Congress has given final approval to the GOP plan to temporarily suspend the debt ceiling, allowing the treasury to keep spending until early August. The Senate voted 64 to 34 to pass the measure, which will now head to President Barack Obama’s desk, where he is expected to sign it.

1) The Great Recession technically ended in the summer of 2009, as gross domestic product rebounded from the bottom and started to expand. However, to any American not looking at the textbook definition, the recession never ended. The latest economic reports on income and spending might appear to be positive, but consumers are still in survival mode.

On Thursday, the Commerce Department said incomes increased 2.6 percent in December, easily beating analysts’ expectations for only a 0.8 percent gain. It was the largest jump in eight years… (Read more.)