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By Staff Reporters

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October is Physical Therapy Month, a time to celebrate the contributions that physical therapists, their aides, and assistants make to the industry. There are more than 300 million annual physical therapy visits in the US, and the profession is estimated to be worth $46 billion, according to the American Physical Therapy Association. Make sure to take some time to appreciate any physical therapists in your life.

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The United Auto Workers union said it reached a tentative labor contract with Ford that, if ratified, would mark the biggest gains for unionized auto workers in decades. The deal includes a 25% pay bump over the four years of the contract, cost-of-living adjustments that had been previously suspended, and a quicker timeline for new workers to reach the highest wage ($40 an hour for assembly workers by the end of the contract).

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Here is where the major benchmarks ended:

• The S&P 500 Index was down 60.91 points (1.4%) at 4,186.77; the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) was down 105.45 points (0.3%) at 33,035.93; the NASDAQ Composite was down 318.65 points (2.4%) at 12,821.22.
• The 10-year Treasury note yield was up about 11 basis points at 4.946%.
• CBOE’s Volatility Index (VIX) was up 1.30 at 20.27.

Communication services and technology were among the market’s weakest sectors Wednesday, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) dropping more than 4%. Small-cap stocks also remained under pressure, with the Russell 2000 Index (RUT) falling more than 1% to near a 13-month low.

Small-caps are often seen as being more sensitive to the domestic economic cycle because they tend to conduct most of their business in the United States. Utilities and consumer staples were among the few areas of strength.

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