Stock Market Today: Stocks Fall for Fourth Consecutive Session

stock chart pointing down — (Image credit: Getty Images)

Stocks closed lower Monday in a choppy session noticeably light on volume. A lack of economic news – and the fact that the bond market was closed in observance of Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples Day – helped make for a quiet day of trading.

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Still, heightened anxiety over central bank tightening, a rising dollar and a dour outlook for the automotive industry made further declines the path of least resistance for equities. Shares in General Motors (GM, -4.0%) and Ford Motor (F, -6.8%) sold off after Wall Street analysts predicted both carmakers would suffer steep earnings declines next year.

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The bottom line? U.S. stocks kicked off the week with a fourth straight day of losses. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3% to close at 29,202 while the broader S&P 500 slipped 0.8% to 3,612. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost -1.0% to settle at 10,542.

price chart for Dow, S&amp;P 500 and Nasdaq on 10102022

Other news in the stock market today:

The small-cap Russell 2000 shed 0.6% to 1,691.
U.S. crude futures declined 1.9% to $90.87 per barrel.
Gold futures fell 2.0% to $1,675 an ounce.
Bitcoin slipped 1.3% to $19,216. (Bitcoin trades 24 hours a day; prices reported here are as of 4 p.m.)

AI's Top Stock Picks

October is supposed to be the "bear market killer," but we've yet to see evidence of the 10th month coming to the rescue in 2022. An uncomfortably robust September jobs report did nothing to dissuade the Federal Reserve from sticking to its hawkish stance on inflation. And just when consumers were starting to see some relief from rising energy prices, OPEC and its allies decided to slash production of crude oil. Although the move creates opportunities for investors in some of the best oil stocks, it was decidedly bad news on both a personal finance and macroeconomic level.

19 Best Stocks to Buy Now for High Upside Potential

With the market off to one of its worst starts in history, it's clear that do-it-yourself investors need all the help they can get. Happily, a stock-picking platform driven by artificial intelligence has been sharp in the past – and it's open to retail investors. Danelfin's AI system not only identifies stocks with the highest probability of beating the market over the next 30 to 90 trading days, it also selects for names with the lowest risk profiles. Read on to learn about the fintech's top stock picks for Q4.

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Dan Burrows is Kiplinger's senior investing writer, having joined the publication full time in 2016.

A long-time financial journalist, Dan is a veteran of MarketWatch, CBS MoneyWatch, SmartMoney, InvestorPlace, DailyFinance and other tier 1 national publications. He has written for The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and Consumer Reports and his stories have appeared in the New York Daily News, the San Jose Mercury News and Investor's Business Daily, among many other outlets. As a senior writer at AOL's DailyFinance, Dan reported market news from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Once upon a time – before his days as a financial reporter and assistant financial editor at legendary fashion trade paper Women's Wear Daily – Dan worked for Spy magazine, scribbled away at Time Inc. and contributed to Maxim magazine back when lad mags were a thing. He's also written for Esquire magazine's Dubious Achievements Awards.

In his current role at Kiplinger, Dan writes about markets and macroeconomics.

Dan holds a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College and a master's degree from Columbia University.

Disclosure: Dan does not trade individual stocks or securities. He is eternally long the U.S equity market, primarily through tax-advantaged accounts.