Dow falls more than 200 points on last day of May

NEW YORK -- Wall Street ended the last day of May with a broad selloff in late trading, sending the Dow Jones industrial average down more than 200 points.

The Dow fell 208.96, or 1.36%, to 15,115.57 at the closing bell, capping a volatile week in the stock market.

The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index dropped 23.67, or 1.43%, to 1,630.74. The technology-heavy Nasdaq dropped 35.38 points, or 1.01%, to 3,455.91.

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Randy Frederick, managing director of active trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab, said the sharp drop Friday afternoon could have been merely for “technical” reasons.

Without any apparent negative news to cause investors fleeing, the selloff could have been fueled by the month-end rebalancing of stock portfolios or options expiring, he said. Overall, he said, various indicators have pointed to increased volatility in the stock market.

The Dow had risen more than 60 points at one point Friday, and was flat for much of the trading day. Despite the late-afternoon selloff, the Dow gained 1.9% in May and was still up 15.4% for the year.

Volatility in the stock market has increased over the last couple of weeks, ever since investors got conflicting signals from the Federal Reserve about when it might begin to wind down its monetary stimulus programs.

The Fed has been pumping $85 billion a month into the economy, making traditionally safer investments like savings accounts and bonds less attractive. To get any meaningful returns, investors have plowed into riskier investments like stocks.

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