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Stocks failed to hold on to bigger gains from earlier in the day and finished Wednesday essentially unchanged.
Fifteen Dow stocks finished the day higher and the remaining 15 ended the day in red.
The stock market is a host of contradictions: Markets are stable, but stocks are overbought. Valuations are reasonable, but election instability could upset every investor. Even so, don't worry.
That's the argument (if that's an argument), of Alicia Levine, chief strategist of Bank of New York Mellon.
She said one of the biggest threats to the stock market is a Bernie Sanders presidency -- and he has a real shot. "Early winners tend to win later," she said on the 'Markets Now' live show.
Levine noted that the market has moved dramatically higher since September and investors have practically zero bearish sentiment to stop stocks from going higher still. That means stocks are overbought.
Yet she says "valuations are reasonable," because S&P 500 companies' earnings have a chance of growing their earnings at 6% this year -- a fairly reasonable goal.
"They have a higher P/E multiple but I'm not sure they're that overvalued," she said.
Although pricey stocks could be a source of some volatility in the near term, she expects stocks to remain relatively stable throughout the year ... unless, of course, Bernie Sanders is elected.
"Everyone is very concerned about when the 737 Max will be cleared to fly again, and when they are could you have consumers reluctant to fly on one?" asked CNN Business' Paul R. La Monica on the 'Markets Now' live show.
Boeing is down 2.3% Wednesday.
"Investors are probably wise to steer clear of this stock," La Monica added.
The Dow was more than 100 points higher earlier Wednesday, but investors soured on Boeing for its 737 Max delays and concerns about air travel because of the coronavirus.
Boeing shed 70 points off the Dow, according to Matt Cheslock, equity trader at Virtu Financial. It's the heaviest-weighted Dow stock.
But the entire transportation sector is under pressure because of the coronavirus outbreak, particularly after the first case was confirmed in the United States.
"Boeing is the face of the transports," said Cheslock on CNN Business' 'Markets Now' live show. "If transports start to roll over, Boeing is the cause."
The firm said the virus could knock $3 off the price of each oil barrel. Goldman compared this outbreak to the SARS infection from 2002 to 2003, and forecasts that the overall demand for oil could decline by 260,000 barrels per day.
Jet fuel prices will decrease the most, Goldman said, because of the "likely decline in regional air travel."
The company also said that it expects sales at stores open for at least a year to fall 3% during its most recent quarter. Express' stock jumped 18% during Wednesday trading.
As of November, Express had 411 primarily mall-based retail stores in the United States and Puerto Rico and 215 outlet stores.