Wall St. retreats from record as industrials, tech lag
Reuters
Published Oct 23, 2017 04:29PM ET
Wall St. retreats from record as industrials, tech lag
By Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks declined on Monday as each of the major Wall Street indexes retreated from a record, weighed down by a drop in technology and industrial shares.
General Electric (N:GE), down 6.3 percent, suffered its biggest one-day percentage decline in more than six years after a host of brokerages cut their price targets on the stock, citing higher chances of a dividend cut at the industrial conglomerate.
After holding near the unchanged mark for most of the session, losses accelerated late in the session on downturn in technology (SPLRCT), off 0.40 percent.
Last week, the Dow and S&P managed to close at a record high all five days, after a strong start to third-quarter earnings and on hopes President Donald Trump's tax plans move forward after the Senate's approval of a budget resolution on Friday.
"On the one hand, the market is very extended, overbought, on the other hand so far earnings have come through," said Andrew Slimmon, portfolio manager at Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) Investment Management in Chicago.
"The question becomes what happens if tax reform doesn’t happen in 2017, does the market sell off into the year-end?"
Investors are also waiting for news on the next Federal Reserve chief. Trump told reporters on Monday he is "very, very close" to making his decision on who should chair the Fed.
Of the 97 S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings so far, 73.2 percent have topped expectations, according to Thomson Reuters data, versus the 72-percent average for the past four quarters.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) fell 54.25 points, or 0.23 percent, to 23,274.38, the S&P 500 (SPX) lost 10.19 points, or 0.40 percent, to 2,565.02 and the Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) dropped 42.23 points, or 0.64 percent, to 6,586.83.
Industrials (SPLRCI), were off 0.8 percent as one of the biggest drags to the S&P of the 11 major sectors. Aside from GE, the group was also pulled lower by a 10.4-percent tumble in Arconic (N:ARNC) after the specialty metals maker missed profit estimates and announced a new chief executive.
The energy index (SPNY) stumbled 0.59 percent, driven by losses in Schlumberger (N:SLB), Baker Hughes (N:BHGE) and Halliburton (N:HAL), which reported results on Monday.
Hasbro (O:HAS) plunged 8.6 percent after the toymaker's forecast for the holiday season fell below estimates as Toys'R'Us bankruptcy began to hurt its operations. Shares of peer Mattel (O:MAT) fell 3.2 percent.
Get The News You Want
The S&P 500 posted 91 new 52-week highs and 6 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 104 new highs and 41 new lows.
About 5.84 billion shares changed hands in U.S. exchanges, compared with the 5.83 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions.
(The story removes extraneous punctuation in paragraph 5)
Written By: Reuters
Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.